Today’s Toronto Film Festival press conference for The Birth of a Nation at times felt more like a forced feeding than an honest conversation, with the elephant in the room being director, writer, and star Nate Parker’s 1999 rape case and its impact on the movie going unaddressed for almost half of the hour-long allotted time.
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The Sundance breakout was on its way to awards season contention until Parker’s resurfaced rape trial details cast a shadow over the powerful film and upcoming commercial release.
Parker was acquitted in the 1999 rape case, which took place when he and co-writer Jean Celestin were students at Penn State University. Would audiences be able to separate the art from the conversation surrounding the artist?
“I would just say I’ve addressed it, and I’m sure in future forums I will address it more”, Parker said. He then thanked TIFF for including the film in its slate. But Parker was not willing to oblige.
The conference, arranged by distributor Fox Searchlight, saw Parker’s “Birth” family lend him some support before the press.
The subject stayed largely out of sight for much of the hour, as cast members that included Colman Domingo, Gabrielle Union, Aunjanue Ellis and Jackie Earle Haley spoke movingly about the challenges of injustice and the struggle against racial inequality, prompted by questions about the film from moderator Cori Murray, from Essence magazine. “Now what people are doing is judging the film before seeing it, which is not fair”.
“As a woman, and as someone who believes strongly in social justice for everybody, it’s very upsetting to me when we have narratives that are so myopic and that exclude voices of women”, she said.
“I really wanted to say”, he added, “‘hey, this is about the film, let’s keep it about the film, let’s see what we can get from the film'”. He went on for several minutes explaining that over 400 people had been involved with the project and had made sacrifices and put their lives on hold for it, and how it wasn’t fair to let that work go to waste. We were gone for nearly 15 weeks. “Personal life aside, I’m just one person”. The much-watched event was orchestrated to take the spotlight off Parker’s past.
And when Weston sat down with Parker’s co-star Armie Hammer he faced a similar fate to Glasner.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film received a 90-second ovation after its screening and later a two-minute standing ovation as the cast of the movie appeared on the stage. But when I made this film, and I often say it, healing comes with confrontation with the past.
“The Birth of a Nation” is slated to arrive in theatres on October 7. “There is no one person that makes a film”.
“To me, this isn’t the Nate Parker story – this is the Nat Turner story”, said Miller. “They call slaves ‘workers.’ They do this explicitly, because they don’t want us to know who we are”.
The reporter’s question came immediately after he asked Parker if he felt the drama could affect the success of the film, which won acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier this year (Jan16).
But on Saturday, when Parker and his cast were doing a round of television interviews, the mood was different.
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Parker was asked multiple times at a press conference on Sunday about the controversy.
