First Trailer for Sundance Favorite THE BIRTH OF A NATION

Back in January the big talk of the Sundance Film Festival was actor/director/writer Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation, not only because it received several standing ovations, but largely due to the fact it ended up selling to Fox Searchlight for a record-setting $17.5 million. Searchlight beat out competing bids from The Weinstein Co., Netflix, Paramount and many others with the likes of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon being cited as game changers as far as the typical market at film festivals go. Having written, directed, and starred in the film this could be a potentially huge year for Parker as Searchlight has set the film up with an awards-friendly October release date and no doubt plan on rolling out an awards worthy campaign for the multi-hyphenate. In the film Parker plays Nat Turner, a former slave in America, who leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virginia. While it is easy to peg such a film for awards season glory I'm sure this was not the pure motivation for Parker to sink so much of his time, talent, and heart into the film. Rather, he undoubtedly felt it was time for Turner's story to be told and felt not only a responsibility to do so, but at a certain point that he could do the material justice. With an astounding supporting cast and this first trailer that features some haunting and hauntingly beautiful images set to Nina Simone's "Strange Fruit," it seems as if Parker has certainly captured a certain tone and hopefully hit something of an emotional core that, should this become the awards favorite it seems destined to be, won't feel redundant of Steve McQueen's masterpiece from three years ago. The Birth of a Nation also stars Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Penelope Ann Miller, Aunjane Ellis, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Jr, Colman Domingo, Dwight Henry, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, and opens on October 7th, 2016.



Synopsis: Set against the antebellum South, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself and his fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.



No comments:

Post a Comment