The Birth of a Nation is a 2016 American period drama film based on the story of Nat Turner, the enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. Co-written, co-produced and directed by Nate Parker (in his directorial debut), the film stars Parker as Turner, with Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Penelope Ann Miller and Gabrielle Union in supporting roles. Parker also petitioned financiers to invest in the film, ultimately getting an $8.5 million production budget, and started filming in May 2015 in Georgia.
The film premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2016. Fox Searchlight Pictures bought worldwide rights to the film in a $17.5 million deal, the largest deal at the film festival to date. At the end of the festival, the film won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition and was highly praised for its directing, acting, soundtrack and cinematography. The film was theatrically released in the United States on October 7, 2016 by Fox Searchlight Pictures and grossed $16 million.
Because The Birth of a Nation attracted increased attention due to possible Oscar nominations, there was significant press coverage of a 1999 alleged rape that Parker and co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin were accused of having committed, and the fact that the accuser committed suicide in 2012. While Parker was acquitted and Celestin was initially found guilty, but then later granted a retrial that never went ahead, the controversy surrounding the alleged rape and Parker’s initial responses to the controversy cast a shadow over the film,
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