The birth of a nation which premiered 100 years ago by filmmaker e w griffin. In the next 45 minutes we will open our phone lines. Part of the real america series. Joining us is hari jones. The curator of the africanamerican civil war memorial Freedom Foundation and museum. From boston is the author of the book, the birth of a nation how a legendary filmmaker and a crusading editor reignited americas civil war. David lehr. Thank you for being with us. The phone lines are open. 2027084901 for those in mountain and pacific time zones. Dick lehr, we will begin with you. In terms of history it is a foundational moment in american film history. A breakout moment. Until the threehour plus epic, films were much shorter. 10 minutes or less. The ambitious d. W. Griffith wanted to tell a big story in a big way. He employed all kinds of innovative film techniques that people had not seen before. This was americas first blockbuster. It summarizes this foam. You called it a masterpiece. You called
In its entirety, the film the birth of a nation which premiered 100 years ago by filmmaker e w griffin. In the next 45 minutes we will open our phone lines. Part of the real america series. Joining us is hari jones. The curator of the africanamerican civil war memorial Freedom Foundation and museum. From boston is the author of the book, the birth of a nation how a legendary filmmaker and a crusading editor reignited americas civil war. David lehr. Thank you for being with us. The phone lines are open. 2027084901 for those in mountain and pacific time zones. Dick lehr, we will begin with you. In terms of history it is a foundational moment in american film history. A breakout moment. Until the threehour plus epic, films were much shorter. 10 minutes or less. The ambitious d. W. Griffith wanted to tell a big story in a big way. He employed all kinds of innovative film techniques that people had not seen before. This was americas first blockbuster. It summarizes this foam. You called it
There you have it in its entirety which premiered 100 years ago by filmmaker dw griffith. We are going to open our phone lines as part of our reel america series. Joining us is hari jones, the curator of the African American some order civil war memorial and museum. Joining us is the author of birth of a nation. Thank you for being with us. Our phone lines are open. 20270 just how consequence are consequential was this film . In terms of film history, it was hugely consequential. It is a foundational moment in american film history. It was a breakout moment. Until then, films were 10 minutes or less. The incredibly ambitious dw griffith wanted to tell a big story in a big way and he produced this epic film employing all sorts of innovative techniques people had not seen before. This was literally americas first blockbuster film. This one sentence in your book that summarizes this film. You called it a masterpiece. You called it bigoted and slanted and set it was a dramatic flashpoint i
Role in getting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed through the congress and the senate, which Lyndon Johnson signs on july 2 of 1964. We will look at that. That is where we will go from there. I will finish on one last note, and that has to do with africanamericans. There is a major anniversary coming up in two weeks and that anniversary is not on most peoples radar but it will be the 150th anniversary of congresss passage of the 13th amendment which ended slavery. That will happen saturday, december 31st. January. Im sorry january 31st. That will be coming up. In four years, slavery is obliterated from the United States in lincolns first term. If you saw the daniel daylewis movie of four years ago, that is really what that movie is about. It will take another hundred years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Any questions about anything . Well good. Well, thank you very much for being here. I appreciate it. [inaudible] know, and all the sources will tell you that. All
This week on q a, our guest is dick lehr, author of the birth of a nation how a legendary filmmaker and a crusading editor reignited americas civil war. Dick lehr, in a recent Washington Post review, the gentleman who wrote it, it starts off this way no redblooded american would favor censoring works of art. While reading dick lehrs book you may find yourself rooting for that with a clampdown of the 1915 film of the same name. Isnt that a great start . Why the birth of a nation and what is it . Its considered the first blockbuster film. The story i want to tell is not only the making and release of the film in 1915 but the controversy that it provoked. It is mainly a story about a civil rights leader from a boston by the name of William Monroe trotter, a radical newspaper editor as well who was at the forefront of extensive protest action against this bill film about civil war and reconstruction which is entirely racist in its portrayal of black america. If it were to come out today, w