The calendar delivers an invitation to pause and observe — not celebrate — the 100th anniversary of the most important, innovative and despicable film in American history. In 2004, Paul D Miller, also known as DJ Spooky, audio-visually remixed the film as Rebirth of a Nation. Among these innovations and techniques are the use of film and editing to create narrative, subtitles, night photography, tinting, panning, close-ups, parallel editing, and a variety of others. After all, years before the film Birth of a nation, makers of film employed techniques to evoke pathos from viewers; whether through the use of a sobbing mother, a frightened child or what have you. Moreover, Griffith frequently improved upon techniques that others had invented. The Birth of a Nation was re-released in 1924, 1931, and 1938, so it remained in the minds of film lovers and human rights activists for decades. The Birth of a Nation represents the culmination of visual strategies to communicate narrative that the film industry had been working on for the first twenty years of its existence. A controversial, explicitly racist, but landmark American film masterpiece - these all describe ground-breaking producer/director D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915). The Birth of a Nation was the first American motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson.Griffith's innovative techniques … When Nate Parker, the African-American writer, director and star of this year’s slave-rebellion biopic The Birth of a Nation, opted to use that title, he did so to reclaim it. The film was such a success that it was recommended by the President of the time, Woodrow Wilson, and was the first film to be screened in the White House. The Stonemans hail from the North, the Camerons … Executives in Hollywood even thought about remaking it in 1950 and releasing the film on television as late as 1959 . D.W. Griffith, pioneer American motion-picture director credited with developing many of the basic techniques of filmmaking, in such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and The Struggle (1931). But that wasn’t the case when The Birth of a Nation was released on February 8, 1915. Griffith invented what today is called the flashback, though he called it the “switchback.” In a flashback, a brief return to a past time interrupts the forward progress of a linear narrative. The Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith, 1915, silent black and white film. D.W. Griffith is often consider the forefather of modern film technique. While the subject matter of his most famous film, Birth of a Nation, is deplorable, its composition, as well as the composition of his later film, Intolerance, was groundbreaking. A century later it’s regarded as a landmark in cinema history – and terribly bigoted. "The Sword Became a Flashing Vision": D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation* HE ACHIEVED what no other known man has ever achieved," wrote James Agee. David W. Griffith Corporation; After screenings of the film had caused riots at several theatres, however, The Birth of a Nation was censored in many cities, including New York City, and Griffith became an ardent opponent of censorship of the motion picture. "To watch his work is like being witness to the beginning of melody, or the first conscious use of the lever or the wheel; the emergence, coordination, The Birth of a Nation was released on 8 February 1915. The film's lesson: Race relations must remain in the hands of those who once owned, "understood," and controlled black people. Review the article “D.W. And white violence is justified to ensure this noble end. History is usually written by the winners. Movie language and technique was robust and capable of taking on complex stories and ideas, but it was … Other film-makers have engaged critically with The Birth of a Nation. The Birth of a Nation, directed by DW Griffith back in 1915, has a reputation as one of the greatest movies ever made – and one of the most purely vile. D.W. Griffith, in full David Wark Griffith, (born January 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Kentucky, U.S. —died July 23, 1948, Hollywood, California), pioneer American motion-picture director credited with developing many of the basic techniques of filmmaking, in such films as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), Orphans of the Storm (1921), and … Because many of these techniques are now standard features of films but first came together in The Birth of a Nation, countless directors owe their technical knowledge of cinematography to Griffith and the cohesiveness of his film.