There was a large elephant in the room throughout the press conference for “The Birth of a Nation” on Sunday during the Toronto International Film Festival, and while many members of the cast made impassioned and moving speeches, some of which acknowledged the rape charges and trial writer-director-star Nate Parker faced as a student at Penn State, Parker didn’t directly address several questions put to him about his personal history. Penelope Ann Miller – who in the film portrays Elizabeth Turner, the mother of Nat’s owner, Sam Turner, and who takes young Nat under her wing – said, “I just want to say that to me, this isn’t the Nate Parker story, this is the Nat Turner story”.
Advertisement
“I’ve addressed it and I’m sure in different forums I’ll address it more”. “You know, after the film I talked to my kids and said, ‘You know what son, or daughter, this is how you should move forward, or this is what this type of integrity looks like when it comes to standing up for people around you'”.
The then-18-year-old woman had accused Parker and his friend Jean Celestin – who is listed as a collaborator on Birth of a Nation – of sexually assaulting her. Parker was charged, tried and subsequently acquitted in 2001.
During a TV interview with Reuters on Saturday, Parker was asked about why he felt it was important to have addressed the rape case while discussing the film in interviews last month.
Long before its Toronto showcase, “The Birth of a Nation” had appeared poised for award season accolades. “This isn’t the Nate parker story”. Many think its awards chances are irreparably damaged.
“It’s a powerful film and it tells a hugely important story and the kind of story we don’t see often”, the festival’s artistic director Cameron Bailey said in an interview. But the audience reception was clearly not warm enough to reassure a cast that used every opportunity on Sunday to insist that had a duty to view the film, both as an educational moment, and a call to social change.
“We are examining an enormous shame in American history, and carrying an enormous amount of shame”, said co-star Colman Domingo. There’s no peace in the streets right now, there’s blood in the streets, and it’s on everyone’s hands, because we’re not facing our truth.
Gabrielle Union, who has a small, wordless part in the film as a slave who is raped by a white man (the film doesn’t actually show the sexual assault), was asked about the response she’s received to her L.A. Times op-ed, in which the rape survivor expressed “stomach-churning confusion” over the controversy. The alleged victim took her own life in 2012. “Most people don’t know the Nat Turner story”.
Union stressed that in making The Birth of Nation, the cast and crew were “creating a movement”. Nat Turner was rooted in a place of faith that helped to subjugate and oppress his people. If there’s any message I could get out to anyone who’s ever sat in my seat, is: “You are not broken, you are not alone, you have a tremendous amount of support whether you speak out or you keep your pain personal, you are real, you are valid, you are loved, and you are worthwhile”.
Advertisement
The cast collectively sought to turn the conversation back toward the film and race in America.
