The Birth of a Nation
Director: Nate Parker Run Time: 119 min. Format: DCP Rating: R Release Year: 2016
Starring: Aja Naomi King, Armie Hammer, Aunjanue Ellis, Colman Domingo, Dwight Henry, Esther Scott, Gabrielle Union, Jackie Earle Haley, Mark Boone Jr., Nate Parker, Penelope Ann Miller, Roger Guenveur Smith
Nate Parker’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION tells of the violent slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831.
Set against the antebellum South, The Birth of a Nation follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), 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. So, on August 1831, he leads a violent rebellion to free himself and other slaves in Southampton County, Va.