Photo Coverage: Colman Domingo & More at TIFF: THE BIRTH OF A NATION - Red Carpet Premiere
By: Walter McBride Sep. 16, 2016
Writer-director Nate Parker reclaims the title of D.W. Griffith's KKK-boosting 1916 milestone for this epic chronicle of the life of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion against white plantation owners in 1831 Virginia. Below, check out the cast from the film at this week's Toronto Film Festival premiere.
Nate Parker's directorial debut is a searing account of the life of Nat Turner, the enslaved African-American who spearheaded an insurrection in 1831. From its very title, appropriated from the canonized yet deeply racist D.W. Griffith film, The Birth of a Nation announces itself as a corrective reclamation of American history.
Born into slavery in Virginia's Southampton County, young Nat (Parker) is given to dreams in which his African ancestors anoint him a prophet. He is favoured by his masters, learns to read, and is given a Bible. By the time he is an adult, Turner has become a preacher capable of rousing oratory. He convinces his master Samuel (Armie Hammer, also at the Festival in Free Fire and Nocturnal Animals) to purchase Cherry (Aja Naomi King), whom Turner will wed. Their romance proves a fleeting idyll, however. Turner is rented out to PREACH at other plantations where, after years of relatively humane treatment, he becomes fully aware of the depravity and torture wreaked upon slaves - and decides that sermons are no longer a sufficient response to such appalling injustice.
Parker demonstrates a gift for eliciting textured performances from his co-stars, and his command of the camera is magisterial. The Birth of a Nation never flinches in its gaze, but it also possesses a vigorous spiritual foundation.
Turner believed that revolutionary violence would awaken others to the infernal mistreatment of slaves, and he died for this cause. The Birth of a Nation seeks to ensure that he did not do so in vain.
Chike Okonkwo
Mark Boone Junior
Mark Boone Junior
Chike Okonkwo
Chike Okonkwo
attends the 'The Birth of a Nation' Red Carpet Premiere during the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival premiere at Princess of Wales Theatre on September 9, 2016 in Toronto, Canada.
Chike Okonkwo and Nate Parker
Colman Domingo and Gabrielle Union
Colman Domingo and Gabrielle Union
Penelope Ann Miller, Colman Domingo and Gabrielle Union
Penelope Ann Miller, Colman Domingo, Aja Naomi King and Gabrielle Union
attends the 'The Birth of a Nation' Red Carpet Premiere during the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival premiere at Princess of Wales Theatre on September 9, 2016 in Toronto, Canada.
Jackie Earl Haley
Elizabeth Chambers and Armie Hammer
Elizabeth Chambers and Armie Hammer
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