It is just racist people making racist laws and now with the Trump administration you can not even dare to hope that there will be a change. Also, its shocking to hear that Obama did not do anything about it. Maybe he was busy doing something better. Hoever, trump or the next administration should do something about it because this is like your family disowning you and you not being able to do anything about it.

The birth of a nation is a 1915 movie directed and produced by Griffith. It involves two families from the Mason Dixon line who became friends after their sons went to the same school. One of the families was the Stonemans family that lived in Washington and owned a rural farm near Pennsylvania. Austin Stoneman was the head of this family and also was an abolitionist politician. He had three children, namely Elsie, Phil, and Tod. The other family was the Camerons and are regarded in the movie as the southern family. They owned a vast plantation in piedmont South Carolina. The movie was directed to persuade the whites that the blacks or Negroes were the resultant of the American problems. He uses several methods to convince his fellow whites, including the use of music, color, and black depiction of some characters in the movie. It revolves around the Camerons and how they were affected by the civil war. They blame the civil war and the introduction of Africans to America as the beginning of the problems they encountered in the south.

MS Word is the program I will use to write up Assignment 1 and 2.

I already mailed you about it.

Griffith made Black Americans look like predators to the white american society and it rose up in the way he showed it which was his talent. However, it created a riot and something that black americans were scared about happened. It created that feeling in the blacks of being inferior and the wg=hites of being supremists.

Note:

Backlash of Birth of a Nation, highly racist and filled with propaganda.

William Trotter protested Birth of a Nation in Boston/ Trotter came from a wealthy family and went to Harvard and met W.E.D. Dubois

Griffith’s idea of the Klan is folklore because of when he was born. By the time he became popular his family was considered “white trash” in the South.

Griffith’s father died when he was 10 and his family lived in poverty.

Segregation was unfolding in the US

Trotter created “The Guardian” newspaper to challenge Booker T. Washington

Trotter and Dubois go to Niagara falls and creates the NAACP.

Griffith is focusing on cinema/Trotter is focusing on what is happening in nation’s capital

The book “The Clansman” has become a nationwide best seller and play. Griffith starts working on filming ‘The Clansman”.

1. The newspaper and organizations created were The Guardian and the NAACP
2. These organizations created a voice for black American’s and allowed them to speak out against segregation and racism.
3. The differences between Trotter and Dubois was that Trotter was more activist and was speaking out at meetings and going to the White House and Dubois had a more neutral stance.
4. hen the banning of the film failed, Trotter led protests to theaters and in the streets to let theater owners and movie goers alike know that the film was full of propaganda and lies and that it should not be seen. Unfortunately, this had an inverse effect of making people want to see it and making it a bigger event.
5. The lynching of African Americans was common in the United States at this time. The Birth of a Nation was seen as possible accelerant for this type of violence because it portrayed blacks as crooked people who were going to take away white peoples’ rights. At the same time, it portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as an organization that would save the day had history gone the correct way in the eyes of Dixon and Griffith. 

I believe that Dr. Cameron’s plan if the militia did manage to get in was to kill his daughter. He did want the mixing of races to happen by chance in the event a true pillaging was about to occur.This is similar to the ideas of Hoffman that racial mixing only leads to poor consequences and to think otherwise is foolish. At the end i think griffith is trying to show that whites will have the support of god and them only can go to heaven and therefore it is shown in the film. All the peace on the hill and jesus with them spectates that.

The Birth of a Nation Questions:

1. How is the actor playing Gus costumed? What does this tell us that we should feel about Gus?

The actor that is playing Gus is costumed in bad quality clothing making it known that he is poor. He has a warn out hat on, he is all dirty and looks like he hasn’t cleaned up for a long time. He doesn’t even care to pick up a peace of his clothing when it falls off him so he doesn’t care much about it. Shows it isn’t expensive. He is also African American.

2. How is the actor playing Flora costumed? What does this tell us that we should feel about Flora?

The actor who is playing Flora is costumed in more of a daily dress she wears around. Not to nice but not warn down and looks young. She looks like she comes from a middle class family.

3. How is lighting used to make Gus seem menacing?

The lighting is kinda dark and hard to see is full completion. (more of low-key lighting) He gives off a scary look with his eyes bright white because of the lighting , especially since he’s chasing flora and won’t go away.

4. How is the lighting used to make Flora seem innocent?

It is bright and easier to see her, and it seems peaceful in the beginning when it is just her. It looks like it has some good naturally light. They make sure some sunlight is on her. (more of high-key lighting). She also has a very playful spirit and likes to be with nature and smiles and looks happy with how she plays with the squirrel.

5. How does the actor walk and what types of actions does he perform as he follows Flora? How does this tell us he’s–for lack of a better term–a predator?

Gus kinda stumbles while he walks and he creeps on to her. Once he catches up to her he starts to chase her. He runs with his hands open making him look like he wants to catch her which makes him look like a predator.

6. What actions and interactions do we see Flora engaged in while she’s being followed by Gus that tells us Flora is childlike?

Flora loves interacting with nature and kinda playing make believe. Like a child would to entertain themselves. She skips around, picks up flowers, rocks, filled her bucket up with water, and watched the squirrel and was talking to her like a child.

7. How is the music associated with Gus different than the music associated with Flora?

The music they use for Flora in the beginning is very up beat and peaceful. As soon as Gus comes into the scene the music slows down and slowly changes to a different theme. The music is more dramatic and suspenseful. After Gus asks Flora to marry him and she says no the music gets more intense. It makes the scene become darker and more dramatic as he starts to flolow her.

8. How does cross-cut editing between the Flora-Gus chase scene with Ben, Flora’s older brother, communicate to us the danger that Flora is in?

The cross cut editing they did during this scene was when they alternate shots of lines of action occurring in different places. Which was flora and Gus talking outside and then Ben’s scene inside the house. The brother seems to be in concern for flora’s safety and goes to look for flora. Flora begins to run away from Gus in her scene but Gus won’t stop chasing her and they end up on a cleft. Flora threatens Gus that if he goes away she will jump off the cleft. Ben knows she is in danger when he finds Gus clothing and cant find them.

9. Thinking back and using the theories of discourse and multiplicities, how would you say the work of writers like John Tyler Morgan and Frederick Hoffman shaped a viewing public that would accept this sequence with few to no reservations?

Some people wouldn’t like a film like this with all of the offense/racist. Going back to Morgan and Hoffman’s views and time, they shaped the way I view things little different. It can be hard to not take it all in a certain way. but in those time people did think differently and this is a film that shouldve changed the way they thought about blacks.