When The Birth of a Nation opens in theaters this week, its backers are hoping the film’s buzz will finally shift away from the controversy dogging its creator and toward the slavery drama’s powerful message about race relations in America.
The film about Nat Turner, a slave who led a rebellion in Virginia in 1831, was once hailed as an awards front-runner but has been overshadowed by headlines about a 17-year-old rape case involving the writer, director, producer and lead actor, Nate Parker, who was acquitted at a 2001 trial.
As Parker has sought to address the rape case in recent weeks, marketing for the film has shifted to promote the relevancy of the little-known story of Turner to today’s Black Lives Matters movement.
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