Nate Parker attends the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of “The Birth Of A Nation” Premiere at Winter Garden Theatre on September 9, 2016 in Toronto, Canada.
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Parker admitted to talking “extensively with Gabrielle about things”, and echoed her sentiments, saying: “For anyone that’s listening that is thinking this is only a film that can deal with the injury and trauma of people of colour – I don’t think that’s the case”.
During the panel Parker and the cast of “The Birth of a Nation” argued for focusing on their film and not on the years-old rape allegation against Parker that has enveloped the film in a scandal from his past.
That changed in mid-August, when the film became clouded with revelations that director/star Nate Parker and co-screenwriter Jean Celestin were tried for rape in college more than 15 years ago.
However, recent media attention has been focused on Parker’s acquittal for rape in 1999 and his accuser’s subsequent suicide. Parker’s film immediately sparked widespread Oscar expectations and a bidding war among distributors. Several Academy members previously told The Hollywood Reporter that they would not see the film, much less vote for it, on principal. (Parker is a good man, many people worked on this film besides Parker, we’re just honored to be here.) So it was actually a relief to get so directly back to what makes the film relevant, and to find a topic where Parker seemed not just on firm ground, but ready to speak with the force of personal conviction.
“We should all look at this film in the sense that this was a person that stood against a system that was oppressing people”, he told the audience. “Now what people are doing is judging the film before seeing it, which is not fair”. “I would just encourage everyone to remember that, personal life aside, that it’s not one person”.
Gabrielle Union says the vast majority of people have been extremely supportive after she wrote an essay about her own rape.
Parker was asked multiple times at a press conference on Sunday about the controversy. Samuel turns to alcohol, perhaps he needs to drown his conscience in booze, and Nat begins shedding tears as he preaches. It’s not mine, I don’t own it.
“This is a forum for the film”, said Parker. “I think we’re all craving acknowledgment that we’re real, that we exist, that we live among you, that we are your mothers, your brothers, your sisters, your lovers”. “My sitting in this chair right now is because I’m from a place where … they explicitly take out stories of Nat Turner”. But the controversy over the rape case has the potential to affect the film’s marketing and jeopardize its awards season appeal.
Colman Domingo, who is Hark in The Birth of a Nation, echoed fellow cast members in insisting the film aims in part to start a conversation about racial injustice in the U.S. I didn’t know about the Nat Turner story. But, he added, “from what I understand, we’re going forward”. “So what do you – also now what people are doing is judging the film before seeing it, which is not fair because it’s still an important film – but what do you have to say to those people who are making this choice, and how would you motivate them to support it?”
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The event went off without problems and Parker received a standing ovation. “And I think it’s an important story to learn about”.
