MOVIE · 1915
The Birth of a Nation
DramaWar195 min
During the Civil War and Reconstruction, the lives of two families — the Northern Stonemans and the South Carolina Camerons — become tightly bound. Lillian Gish is Elsie Stoneman, the daughter of a congressman, while Henry B. Walthall’s Ben Cameron returns from battle to a transformed South and helps form the Ku Klux Klan. Directed by D.W. Griffith, the 1915 silent film moves from battlefield spectacle to political conflict and family melodrama, presenting Reconstruction through a racist, pro-Klan lens that distorts Black life and American history.
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