Comments

2
Whoa.

I'm a feminist. Woman. Just to be clear.

When does the justice system get to do its work? Acquitted. Served his time.

When does someone get to move forward with their life?

How does this jibe with saying that people who have gone through the justice system should be allowed to have jobs, be allowed to vote, be allowed to live in "your" neighborhood?

Yes, there is a definite rape culture in the world. Let's address that.

Yes, there is racism in the world. Let's address that.

This jumbled mess of an opinion does neither of those things.

And yes. I'm aware that the "justice system" isn't about justice. Very little in this world is perfect.
3
That Trump statue?

Now, that Trump statue is almost perfection.
4
Seeing as how D.W. Griffith's film is from 1915, isn't this somewhat anti-mimetic.
5
@1

"OJ was acquitted."

Well there you go. Everything else is bullshit.
6
"and one of its creators was actually charged with sexual assault."

Sounds like they both were and then one was acquitted
7
Good Afternoon Charles,
I read about this last night & again this morning. It's awful all right. Most inappropriate subject matter considering Nate Parker's past. I also thought it weird that Penn State settled with the victim for $17,500 and FOX Searchlight paid a record $17.5 million.

I completely agree with you. Good on you for commenting. I shall not view this film whether FOX Searchlight pulls the plug or not. The company certainly has a conundrum on its hands.

Most unfortunate. My the victim RIP.
8
Wait, how is someone acquitted of a crime 17 years ago supposed to go about living the rest of their lives? Never produce any artistic work? Never be involved politics? Never work at any job? I understand if it's Bill Cosby who has shown himself to be an unrepentant serial rapist and never faced legal prosecution for his crimes, but for one accusation he was acquitted over? What if he'd been convicted and served a sentence instead? Would that make it OK for him to ever make films again?

I'm not trying to be hyperbolic, I just literally don't understand what sort of society these final two paragraphs are asking for.

'Though its director was cleared of the charge of rape, the incident is far from over. It is and will always be a part of his life. This, I think, Parker and Celestin, failed to understand and appreciate. Because if they did, there's no way they would have made The Birth of a Nation. They would have reflected on the bad thing that really did happen in the past, looked at the story they were developing, and seen clearly it was not going to work. And fact they went ahead with it only shows how men often fail to grasp the seriousness of this kind of crime. No matter what the ruling was in this case, the woman stated the sex was not consensual. We need to always keep that in mind.

'My recommendation is that the studio pull the plug on Parker's film for the sake of the dead woman's family. They have suffered enough, and one of its creators was actually charged with sexual assault. And this person is evidently still close with Parker. All of this is just too fucked up. The studio should absorb its losses and look elsewhere for young and talented black filmmakers.'
10
Personally, my sympathies are with the rape victim. Not him.
11
Nate Parker and his friend and collaborator Jean Celestin did the same thing that night - they raped an unconscious woman. They even tried to invite a friend to join, who declined and left without taking any action to stop them. The courtroom 'reason' that Parker was acquitted while Jean was not was because the victim had given Parker a blow job the day before... Which of course should make no difference in a rape trial that showed the victim was unconscious. Unconscious people can't consent, even if they've had sex with the offender before. To top it all off, Celestin was initially given only a 6 month sentence for the felony (though state guidelines suggested 3-5 years). Celestin was then granted a new trial, but prosecutors did not have the witnesses to retry at that point in time since they had graduated and most were far away. He was let go. She was ostracized at school after Parker and Celestin hired a private eye to harass her & who put posted photos of her on campus. She tried to commit suicide twice, finally succeeding years later in 2012. Parker and Celestin's future was more important than their victim's. Rape culture at it's worst.

This has the most full accounting I've seen. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…
12
Who are we to judge? No one can be forgiven for their sins, right? The man made a movie that we all should look at and understand how we got here as a country. It's time for the system to be broken.
13
I guess all this begs the question... Can we appreciate the art without deifying the artist?

If not, you're an intellectual cripple. Pirate the movie, appreciate it for what it is and move on.
14
A teen girl was passed out. Nate Parker could've taken her home. Instead, he chose to rape her and invite other men to join in. He can burn in Hell for all I care.
17
A teen girl was passed out. Nate Parker could've taken her home. Instead, he chose to rape her and invite other men to join in. It's all there in the transcripts.
19
If Brock Turner decided to make a film 17 years from now about raping a woman, who would be able to say it had nothing to do with his history? Who would forgive him for not writing his rape fantasy out of the plot line?

I'm tired of men using women's bodies to get what they want, whether it's to get off or make a plot point. Do your art thing, but people get to vote with what they want to watch.
20
Roxane Gay in NYT op-ed:

"I cannot separate the art and the artist, just as I cannot separate my blackness and my continuing desire for more representation of the black experience in film from my womanhood, my feminism, my own history of sexual violence, my humanity.

“'The Birth of a Nation' is being billed as an important movie — something we must see, a story that demands to be heard. I have not yet seen the movie, and now I won’t. Just as I cannot compartmentalize the various markers of my identity, I cannot value a movie, no matter how good or “important” it might be, over the dignity of a woman whose story should be seen as just as important, a woman who is no longer alive to speak for herself, or benefit from any measure of justice. No amount of empathy could make that possible."
21
omg charles thank you for writing this
22
The story of Nat Turner's legacy and slave revolt is larger than the theme of rape culture and cannot be reduced to only that. Clearly the agenda from the author and others to derail this story from being told by suggesting the movie should have never been made and for the studios to pull the plug on the film. Really? Has the plug been pulled on all other films that involve rape or murder in the action crime drama genre'? I could buy into the argument of changing the the name of the film because of the association to the racist original though.
23
Good movie..might just go see it again..the only thing i didn't like was they didn't kill enough slave owners and catchers

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