Based on Dick Lehr's book The Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights, the documentary Birth of a Movement tells the story of William M. Trotter, Boston-based African American newspaper editor and activist. In 1915 Trotter waged a crusade against D.W. Griffith’s technically groundbreaking but notoriously Ku Klux Klan-friendly The Birth of a Nation, igniting a battle still raging today about race relations, media representation, and the power and influence of Hollywood.

Birth of a Movement includes interviews with Spike Lee, Reginald Hudlin, DJ Spooky, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Dick Lehr, and explores how Griffith’s film, frequently held up in film schools as innovative and ground breaking, motivated generations of African American filmmakers and artists to reclaim their history and their onscreen image.

Sponsored by COCC Multicultural Activities



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