[getbak]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Was the title some form of irony to give an anti-racism/slavery film the same title as a racist film or it is just a coincidence?

Yes, it was deliberate.


This is from the Trivia section of the film's IMDB page:

The 2016 film, The Birth of a Nation (2016), uses the same title as "the title of D.W. Griffith's 1915 KKK propaganda film in a very purposeful way", said The Hollywood Reporter. Nate Parker said his film had the same title "ironically, but very much by design". He told the magazine Filmmaker, "Griffith's film [The Birth of a Nation (1915)] relied heavily on racist propaganda to evoke fear and desperation as a tool to solidify white supremacy as the lifeblood of American sustenance. Not only did this film motivate the massive resurgence of the terror group the Ku Klux Klan and the carnage exacted against people of African descent, it served as the foundation of the film industry we know today. I've reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change."