The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, 2016)

The Wex is proud to host an advance screening of this stirring and powerful historical epic about Nat Turner, the literate slave and preacher who led an 1831 slave rebellion in Virginia. Nate Parker’s searing directorial debut is sure to be one of the most talked-about cinematic events of the year, as evidenced by its winning both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Notable for the way it focuses on the spiritual and intellectual degradations of slavery (for all involved) as much as the physical, The Birth of a Nation builds to one of the most charged endings since Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. The film’s boldness is announced right in its title, which Parker reclaims from the 1915 D. W. Griffith film of the same name—one of the most significant yet deeply racist films in American history. Parker also wrote, produced, and stars in the picture. (110 mins., DCP)