Racist Classic Remixed Into 'Rebirth'
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In 1915, "The Birth of a Nation" changed the art of filmmaking. It also celebrated the Ku Klux Klan as heroes of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Now the movie itself is under reconstruction. The artist and musician DJ Spooky is treating the seminal but racist film like a piece of music _ he's doing a "remix." Spooky's work-in-progress, titled "Rebirth of a Nation," was shown at the American Museum of the Moving Image this week.Spooky chose D.W. Griffith's "Birth" precisely because it deals with issues of race. By manipulating it, and showing how it can be changed, he hopes to show how images and ideas about race are mutable as well.
I have only heard of the film Birth of a Nation, never have seen it. The content has piqued my curiosity, in all honesty because I wonder how they attacked such a complex subject with such a limited medium as silent film. I am not sure I would watch it though, because I find the subject matter kind of scary. If it is as blatantly, one-sidedly racist as the propaganda claims, I can see myself throwing a shoe at the TV.
From an artistic and musical point of view, the remix intrigues me. Actually, that has nothing to do with the subject matter at all, but the modern music mix with visuals of period costume and filmography. That I think I would enjoy watching.
In the article I linked to had this comment:
"You have to wonder what Griffith was thinking," he said.Shary was curious at the idea of a film being remixed, but expressed a cautionary note as well.
"If you take a lot of scenes out of that film out of context, they do play very violently and they generate a lot of vehement reactions," he said, adding it could create misinterpretations of the originator's intent.
Sometimes I wonder if as African Americans we hold to much onto what has happened in the past as a means to hold a grudge. It scares me because it is not very Christian and I would hate to do damage to my soul, or worse, teach my children that they should be "proud of who they are" but really mean "hold a grudge" and damage their souls with anger.
The flip side is slavery is a part of this country's history and was an atrocity among atrocities in which the fruits and repercussions are still being reverberated loud and hard. While I have seen a sort of "never forget" push from the African American side, I have seen many a "oh it didn't really happen like that" tactic from many a history class that was not specifially labeled "African American History".
In his commentary on the film, DJ Spooky added:
"Birth of a Nation" focuses on how America needed to create a fiction of African American culture in tune with the fabrication of "whiteness" that undergirded American throughout most of the last several centuries - and it floats out in the world of cinema as an enduring albeit totally racist - epic tale of an America that, in essence, never existed.I certainly see his point too.
As for the film itself, a clip can be viewed here. It looks to me like a music video, more music than actual content (not that music videos are without content, on the contrary, just not very positive content). I watched with a grain of salt and took it at face value (which I tend to do with most things I watch). I only wish I saw the original to have a reference point of comparison.
