PREMIER OF THE BIRTH OF A NATION
Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) The Birth of a Nation, the controversial film produced by D. W. Griffith, premiered on February 8, 1915, here in Los Angeles.
The film, based on Thomas Dixon's novel The Clansman, was the first feature-length motion picture but the three hour movie's racial overtones made it both controversial as well as offensive.
Novelist Thomas Dixon, who had been a college classmate of President Woodrow Wilson, arranged for the movie to be screened in the White House.
President Wilson, according to some sources, said that The Birth of a Nation was..."like writing history with lightning" and added "...my only regret is that it is all so terribly true."
The NAACP protested premiers of the film and published articles condemning the racism portrayed in the production. Riots broke out when the movie was shown in Boston and Philadelphia. Rachel Janik reminds us, however, that Birth of a Nation was the beginning of modern cinema. The film pioneered technical innovations such as "close-ups, fade-outs, and...varying camera angles."
SOURCE
"'Writing History With Lightning,' The Birth of a Nation at 100," by Rachel Janik, www.time.com/
