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Overview
D.W. Griffith’s highly controversial 1915 silent epic The Birth of a Nation follows two families in the American South through the Civil War and the Reconstruction periods
. It is widely regarded as a landmark in the history of film, pioneering fundamental film-making techniques such as the close-up and the fade-out. Presented in two parts separated by an intermission, it was the first American 12-reel film to abandon the episodic “serial” format. The Birth of a Nation has also been the object of controversy since its release. Protested across the country for its highly racist depiction of African Americans, it nevertheless proved immensely popular with white audiences and led to a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, a white-supremacist terrorist group championed in the film. Today, the film is known both for its technical innovations and its abhorrent racism.
