#birth of a nation

[citizenscreen]

D.W. Griffith’s landmark THE BIRTH OF A NATION premiered at Clune’s Auditorium in Los Angeles #OnThisDay in 1915. This was the first 12-reel film in America.

[emmieexplores2]

Lillian Gish, Birth of a Nation postcard 1915

[itcanbefilmed]

The Mountaineer's Honor (D.W. Griffith, 1909)

[blackdiasporanews]

#NeverForget

[ultralaser]

important to remember this isnt an allegory, this was 1960 those specific white people are still alive and voting for trump

Same assholes, different year.

[squimbis]

Not gonna lie, the fact that Emilia Perez won 2 Oscars made me the angriest I’ve been at film in a while

The only other film to make me this angry was the film that got 2 million people to join the K*K*K

[musicandoldmovies]

Lillian Gish in Birth of a Nation

[americatransformed]

Going to try and make this a regular episode in my Temples of Light (Avatar) blog - The power of film, through the lens of an alternate universe: (I dare not post this on the Midjourney forum, because doubtful it would be approved!) 

Movies are all about the heroes journey. Imagine one where we go back in time! Visualize a place where anti-heroes are redeemed, after coming face to face with their fallen nature, and seeing a hidden reality they were once blind to. And then allowed to atone for their sins in present day, as a new man or woman, born again, never again doomed to make the same mistake twice.

In today’s Temples of Light Time Travel, we explore the question, “What if Woodrow Wilson screened 2015’s Birth of a Nation at the White House, rather than the 1915 version?” 

But alas, this is all fiction. The dead can never go back and redeem their past. That is the job of the living; to not make the same mistakes as those who never connected with higher consciousness, now stuck in the tombs of their ancestor’s shame!

Upon his first private screening, Woodrow Wilson had an earth breaking awakening, shattering his heart wide open, after connecting to the power of 21st century cinema in the early 20th century. Somehow, a copy of Nate Parker’s 2015 Birth of a Nation, began playing in place of D. W. Griffith’s 1915 version.

Because filmmakers of every generation continue to improve upon their craft, advancing their power to put the audience in the shoes of “the other,” Wilson had an awakening of consciousness, that brought into question his entire life path, and the respect he held for those who raised him.

This was painful for him to watch, knowing now about his complicity in a racist system, his ancestors helped defend and build. He wanted to turn away, but something inside him could not. Film had turned him into an Avatar, a pure witness that had now become Nat Turner, wearing his shoes, feeling his torment, pain, sorrow, and yes, rage!

Like the hero within Nat Turner awoke, bearing witness to the evil he was complicit in serving, Woodrow awoke for the first time in the White House theater, knowing now what he must do, to end the insanity. He had to share this film, not only with his staff, allies and close friends, but with the entire American people.

The next day at the White House Screening of Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation, Woodrow (seated far right) knew some of his so called friends would walk out. It was a perfect test, to see what kind of company he now wanted to keep.

The vivid color images, stunning sound and higher frame rate elicited a powerful reaction from the audience, most of whom could not take their eyes off the screen. At times, fits of crying and angry shouts erupted from viewers, compelling some to remain seated for the entirety of the film, while leading others to leave. By the end of the film, many who endured had a cathartic change of heart just like Woodrow.

He knew he had to take action, and first thing he could think of, was invite his old nemesis back to the White House; William Monroe Trotter, to make amends and change course, offering him a position in his administration.  (Woodrow Wilson hugging one of William Trotter’s Civil Rights associates after offering his sincere apology.)

Next on Woodrow’s agenda, to screen Parker’s Birth of a Nation on every screen in America, which infuriated D.W. Griffith. Soon the president started getting death threats, but this did not deter him. He was on the heroes journey!

Audiences across America were mesmerized by the film, many having the same breakthrough in consciousness the president had.

In city after city across America, the power of film was doing its work; awakening humans to higher consciousness.

(Nat Turner played by Nate Parker in Birth of a Nation)

The horrors of slavery for all to see, which was glorified in D.W. Griffith’s film.

Audiences transported like an Avatar into the shoes of “the other”.

The most powerful scene in Birth of Nation at the very end; freed slaves going into battle against Confederate troops in the American Civil War.

A young Woodrow Wilson around the time he was once a professor at Wesleyan University.

Wilson was not done, he thought back to that young man he used to be, brainwashed with racist ideology by parents just as blind as he once was. He wished he could go back in time, back to his days teaching at Wesleyan University. He was reminded of a beautiful student named Isabel, who had taken an interest in him, but he had to fight away feelings of attraction for her; their love would be forbidden. If only he could have gone back, as the changed new man he was today. He would find the moral courage to stand up to his racist father, declare his love and ask for her hand in marriage.

And if only he had another life to live, to atone for the one he was now ashamed of. He would stand up and be a real man, on a heroes journey to redeem the soul of America. No longer inhibited or stopped from doing what was righteous.

He would take a stand in the 2024 election, and do everything in his power to assure no more racists were ever elected president of the United States again!

[maybeasunflower]

One of the worst aspects of Birth of a Nation is that it was a pioneer of various cinematic techniques (musical soundtrack, close-ups, fade-outs, use a small number of extra to look like loads) - so anyone who wants to study the history of those techniques has to endure, well, the actual content of the film. Urgh.

Your personal triggers and squicks do not get to determine what kind of art other people make.

People make shit. It's what we do. We make shit to explore, to inspire, to explain, to understand, but also to cope, to process, to educate, to warn, to go, "hey, wouldn't that be fucked up? Wild, right?"

Yes, sure, there are things that should be handled with care if they are used at all. But plenty more things are subjective. Some things are just not going to be to your tastes. So go find something that is to your tastes and stop worrying so much about what other people are doing and trying to dictate universal moral precepts about art based on your personal triggers and squicks.

I find possession stories super fucking triggering if I encounter them without warning, especially if they function as a sexual abuse metaphor. I'm not over here campaigning for every horror artist to stop writing possession stories because they make me feel shaky and dissociated. I just check Does The Dog Die before watching certain genres, and I have my husband or roommate preview anything I think might upset me so they can give me more detail. And if I genuinely don't think I can't handle it, I don't watch it. It's that simple.

[wakeupwereinthelastdays]

Birth of A Nation https://www.youtube.com/live/uFv-RLbu9-c?feature=share via @YouTube

[wishchip106]

he gave birth to her btw

i know because i was in the delivery room holding his hand when Erik didn’t come 🫡

thats his baby 🙁

Jean only calls him professor because she doesn’t want the other kids to think of her differently 😔💔

[electricpentacle]

My mother used to teach a film studies course at her university. Quite a lot of the movies she taught were established classics (Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon etc), others were just in there because she liked them (Star Wars, Blade Runner, Alien). But there were two movies she absolutely hated but taught anyway: Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will. Because she felt it was really, really important to do a lecture on movies as propaganda, and those two are excellent examples of cinematic technique used to launder and glamorise a truly vile and noxious ideology.

So yeah. Even the nastiest propaganda movies imaginable were still useful to an academic teaching a class of young people how to recognise and resist the techniques of propaganda.

(I got the propaganda lecture too, as a Young Person who needed warning about such things. And it stuck, to the point where quite a lot of modern MCU makes me wince.)

Ok so...I've been thinking: is it true that there's an actual irredimable media?

IMO media is only truly bad when its specifically intended to cause harm or is just a blatant act of bigotry. Media is media. Media is supposed to tell a story, invoke thought, express things. Such things don't need redemption.

I mean I'll be blatantly honest and say after watching A Serbian Film I just... Didn't get it. If there was a message within it beyond the corrupt and horrific world of extreme pornography then it was lost on me. But assuming that was the message, the film did its job well. It told a story. The things shown in the film are the story. Contrary to my view, most people think its a horrific and damning piece of media that needs to be outlawed and everyone involved shot on sight.

Unless a piece of media was just a flagrant display of bigotry or something truly intended to be blatantly offensive with no ulterior goal, thinking of media as something that needs to be redeemed is just... Pointless, honestly.

JoJo Rabbit, for example. Many people were outraged that such a terrible era was turned into a slashy comedy, but those people also missed the very important messages conveyed in the movie. Does the film owe them redemption, or do they owe the film self-reflection?

[viktors-sternomastoid]

Random Viktor hands - 28/many

That last one gives me the ick lol

[carolofthebell]

My latest obsession:

@rubydianarts animatic of Get in the Water from Epic: the Musical with Hama!

It’s perfection

[m0dernchr0n1cles]

Yinglong & Ao Bing

from Ao Bing Zhuan

Credit to @oubing_bot, read full manga here

Did anyone else get Ursa vibes from Yinglong?