Films @ the Schomburg: Birth of a Movement: The Battle Against America’s First Blockbuster
January 31, 2017 | 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Narrated by actor/director, Danny Glover, “Birth of a Movement” is the largely untold story of African-American newspaperman William Monroe Trotter and filmmaker D.W. Griffith, and their battle over the release of America’s first blockbuster film – Birth of a Nation. Birth of a Movement is the story of a forgotten turning point in the long struggle for equality, and in recounting the story it explores the conflicts that are still in play as the nation continues to wrestle with its racial legacy.
A talkback with panelists Sam Pollard (New York University film school professor and editor for Spike Lee’s films including Four Little Girls), Dick Lehr (author of the book upon which Birth of a Movement is based and former investigative reporter for the Boston Globe on the Spotlight team), Jelani Cobb (New Yorker contributor and professor at Columbia University), Kwyn Bader (Birth of a Movement co-screenwriter), and Ira Gallen (expert on DW Griffith as well as the owner of a large DW Griffith archive, and author of a recent Griffith biography) will follow the screening.
The conversation will be moderated by Judy Richardson (former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), producer at Blackside Film & Media, and co-editor of the book, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts of Women in SNCC and an advisor for Birth of a Movement. @SchomburgCenter #BirthOfAMovement
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street New York NY 10037
Cost: FREE. Registration via SchomburgCenter.Eventbrite.com
RSVP. First come, first seated. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. All registered seats are released 15 to 30 minutes before start time, so we recommend that you arrive early.
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