{"id":247269,"date":"2016-09-11T07:30:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T07:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=247269"},"modified":"2016-09-11T07:30:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T07:30:09","slug":"slave-revolt-film-gets-standing-ovation-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/09\/slave-revolt-film-gets-standing-ovation-in-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Slave revolt film gets standing ovation in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"
Actor and director Nate Parker received an enthusiastic welcome as his film The Birth of a Nation screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.<\/p>\n
After a public showing on Friday of the film – based on a slave uprising led by preacher Nat Turner in 1831 – Parker described it as “a labour of love”.<\/p>\n
There were gasps in the audience at some of the harrowing scenes.<\/p>\n
After the screening, Parker, who has faced media scrutiny over a historic rape trial, got a standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Parker acted in, wrote and directed the film. It gained a huge amount of awards buzz when it first screened at the Sundance film festival in January.<\/p>\n
However, recent media attention has been focused on Parker’s acquittal for rape in 1999 and his accuser’s subsequent suicide.<\/p>\n
‘No brainer’<\/strong><\/p>\n Parker said: “I didn’t have the benefit of learning about Nat Turner when I was at school, yet I grew up 42 miles (68km) east of where the rebellion happened.<\/p>\n “So you can imagine learning about this person, in the absence of heroes, meant a lot to me.”<\/p>\n He said it was a “no brainer” that he would choose to tell the story on film.<\/p>\n “We should all look at this film in the sense that this was a person that stood against a system that was oppressing people,” he told the audience.<\/p>\n “If we can relate to that in 2016, we must ask our selves what we would be willing to sacrifice for what we want our children, and our children’s children, to enjoy.”<\/p>\n Cameron Bailey, the Toronto festival’s artistic director, described the film as a “painful story from American history and a story that needed to be told”.<\/p>\n The Toronto International Film Festival runs until 18 September.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Actor and director Nate Parker received an enthusiastic welcome as his film The Birth of a Nation screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. After a public showing on Friday of the film – based on a slave uprising led by preacher Nat Turner in 1831 – Parker described it as “a labour of love”. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":247271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[137],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n