Abstract
This paper analyzes D. W. Griffith's epic film, "Birth of a Nation, as if it were viewed by an African-American living in the same era as the film's story and discusses the impact the film might have had on him or her.

From the Paper
"D.W. Griffith's classic film, "Birth of a Nation", revolves around the Civil War and American society in the aftermath of the War. While many claim that the negative depiction of blacks including the Ku Klux Klan being painted as the saviors of whites is racist, others argue the film is historically accurate. One of these others was President Woodrow Wilson who lamented upon viewing the film. It is like writing history with lightning and my only regret is that it is all..."

Tags:prejudice, racism, South, Civil War, institutionalism, government, Ku Klux Klan

Abstract
The paper illustrates how the premise of race is often depicted in stereotypes that are either falsely propagandized or that offer a true reflection of the experiences of minorities that struggle against racial hegemony. The paper shows how in Okubo's illustrations of her life in the Japanese internment camps, she exposes the racism she encountered with clarity and historical perspective. However, the paper contends that Griffith offers a highly sensationalized idea about racism that is not realistic, especially with its constant reference to the myths of knighthood and damsels of the medieval period.

Tags:okubo, camp, japan

Abstract
The paper looks at D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" and describes it as both a brilliant film - certainly from a cinematic point-of-view - but also as a film that harbors many ugly assumptions about African-Americans. The paper asserts that while one can appreciate the artistry that makes the motion picture compelling drama nearly a century after its initial release, one should also appreciate the racism that shapes the picture insofar as that racism says a great deal about the America of Griffith's time and a great deal about D.W. Griffith himself.

From the Paper
"The following paper will look at D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" and describe it as both a brilliant film - certainly from a cinematic point-of-view - but also as a film that harbors many ugly assumptions about African-Americans. Ultimately, while one can (and should) appreciate the artistry that makes the motion picture compelling drama nearly a century after its initial release, one should also appreciate the racism that shapes the picture insofar as that racism says a great deal about the America of Griffith's time and a great deal about D.W. Griffith himself. The stirring D.W. Griffith's epic, "Birth of a Nation", is a masterpiece; it..."

Tags:birth, nation, griffith

Abstract
This paper analyzes the innovative film techniques used by D. W. Griffith in the 1915 controversial film that helped develop cinema as an art form, "The Birth of a Nation". It expands on his use of camera angles, lighting and parallel editing.

From the Paper
"D W Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" utilized a variety of cinematic innovations and techniques that helped developed cinema as an art form. Among these innovations and techniques are the use of ..."

Tags:cross-cutting, editing, narrative, cinema, film, drama, racism, history, U.S., intertitles

Abstract
Examines director D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film. Griffith's revolutionary techniques and artistry. The cultural significance, impact and mixed response to the epic film that set off a nationwide controversy. Visual impact of film and its inventive images. Griffith's development of a cinematic language. Describes key scenes. Racist content. Protests by public and civil rights groups.

From the Paper
"D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film "The Birth of a Nation" is one of the most influential films ever made, and one of the most controversial. The movie was the first important innovative motion picture utilizing creative technical skills that were unmatched in its day, and that influenced filmmakers of later generations. The story, based on Thomas Dixon's novel The Clansman, is told in a melodramatic style. The basic plot centers on the friendship of the Camerons, a Southern family, with the Stonemans, a Northern family, and it is a friendship that is both threatened and tested by the Civil War and the Reconstruction period. The Southern family is ruined by the War, the Negroes (the word used at the time) gain some power in the South, and the Ku Klux Klan is formed in "self-defense" of white families and homes. The theme or spirit of the film can be ..."

Abstract
The paper examines the film "Birth of A Nation" and explores how it changed film and also how it influenced racist and bigoted perceptions of certain groups. The paper uses one other source besides the film and discusses the film's influence at length.

From the Paper
"D.W. Griffith's "Birth of A Nation" is both influential and controversial in the canon of film history. Innovative filmic methods, a classical and overarching storyline and poignant social lessons all contribute to D.W. Griffith's ideologies, the quintessentially bigoted and violent ideas that he aims to promote through "Birth of a Nation". These stereotypes and social relations introduced in 1915 (when the film was released for major audiences) are still prevalent in both filmic and real race and social relationships."

Tags:dw griffith, film, birth of a nation

Abstract
The paper argues the fact that the movie "The Birth of a Nation" - made in 1915 to give the American audience a new perspective to racial issues - left a deep impact on the American society long after its production and encouraged audiences as well as filmmakers to take a different view of cinematography. The essay first identifies the culture prevalent in American society at the time and then argues how the film guided cinematography from entertainment to a narrative portrayal of history.

From the Paper
"Griffith's portrayal of a parallel social theme made a deep impact, as Hollywood had not yet been institutionalized and such a realistic representation of the American governance and U.S. imperialism only magnified the social ramifications of racism. Later, movies tried to follow the same path as Griffith but were incomparable in their technique. Filmmakers could not recreate the depth of the concepts as portrayed by Griffith. For example, "The Birth of a Race" was an attempt to counteract the implications as presented in "The Birth of a Nation". The production of the film directed by an African American manages to only depict what had already been realized in Griffith picture."

Tags:The, Clansman, Ku, Klux, Klan, Camerons, Stonemans, racism, African, American, NAACP

Abstract
This paper reviews D.W Griffith's 1916 film, "Intolerance," which has remained one of the most influential films of all time from its initial release to the present day. It attempts to reconcile the tremendous influence of "Intolerance" on the film-making industry over the years and the applause it has received from film scholars even with its categorization as a financial debacle and a box-office flop. It discusses the film's and subsequent re-release's lack of mass appeal and the theories as to why Griffith's epic did not achieve the financial success of his previous film, "The Birth of a Nation."

From the Paper
"It is thus clear that D.W. Griffith's Intolerance has been an influential film for filmmakers of subsequent generations, and that its greatness has been largely appreciated by film critics and scholars over the past eighty-five years. How, then, can the affirmed greatness of this film be reconciled with its box office failure in 1916? I believe the answer lays in the differences in how a film critic judges a film, as opposed to how the average moviegoer would do so. Drawing from several reviews of Griffith's film, it appears that critics view the film as a work divorced from the world a film's greatness is the product of its own intrinsic worth. General film viewers, however, judge a movie in the context of the world at large and their own lives, as is only natural."

Tags:battleship, birth, early, eisenstein, era, nation, potemkin, silent

Abstract
This paper discusses how in his novel "The Souls of Black Folk" W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that the problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color-line and how written in 1903, Du Bois' analysis proved correct for the rest of the century, particularly the first two-thirds of the 20th Century when Hollywood films depicted blacks as inferiors. It shows how a comparison of his portrayal of African Americans with D.W. Griffith's 1915 landmark film "Birth of a Nation" reveals a vivid contrast in the depiction of African Americans. It looks at how Du Bois portrays African Americans as a people who experience racial suffering and injustices, but also as a people with great strengths and resources who must fight as opposed to the film industry which stereotyped them as ignorant savages or grinning, dancing stooges or people who could only hold menial jobs and who lacked morals and intellect.

From the Paper
"Before the release of "Birth of a Nation" blacks remained for the large part politically indifferent to the derogatory images presented by the film industry. One historian attributes their lack of interest to the deep puritan fundamentalist roots that dismissed film as needless frivolity (Cripps 11). Another reason could be that African Americans had so many areas that required their attention that leaders did not have the time to deal with film. The depiction of African Americans in Hollywood films was horrific, with stereotypes of them as ignorant savages or grinning, dancing stooges or people who could only hold menial jobs and who lacked morals and intellect. D. W. Griffith, the single most influential director of his time, took the stereotypes even further in A Birth of a Nation,@ portraying African Americans as brutal, lusting menaces who represented a very real threat to society."

Tags:stereotype, blacks, hollywood, racial, suffering

Abstract
Films that were made prior to the Civil Rights Era tend to display the views of the day within them, not simply the status of race in the time represented within such works. This paper assesses the concepts of race relations as are presented in the films "Cimarron" (Wesley Ruggles; 1931), "Birth of the Nation" (D.W. Griffith; 1915), and" Within Our Gates" (Oscar Micherux; 1920).