Paul McEwan
Forfatter af The Birth of a Nation (BFI Film Classics)
Værker af Paul McEwan
Cinema's Original Sin: D.W. Griffith, American Racism, and the Rise of Film Culture (2022) 5 eksemplarer
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I'll touch on the audiobook aspect first. If you study film, formally or informally, you may well prefer a physical copy of the book. That said, the narration was good and offered enough inflection to keep interest without being overly emotive, which usually doesn't work for academic books. Though it has been a while, this is the type of audiobook I would have listened to before then reading it. I used to get some works of literature in audio form (in my day, that meant tape or CD) to listen to and get a feel for the whole before then diving into the text to analyze. I think this would serve that purpose well for anyone who anticipates using the book as part of other research.
I sat through the film once in a film course and chose to never view it again even when covered in other film courses. I am of the opinion that what it contributed to filmmaking can be touched on in lecture and films that used those methods can be used as examples to show the class. The importance of the film now is less as a film and more as a historical document that illustrates many of the problems in this country, both then and now. As such, it should be mentioned in much the same way Mein Kampf is cited and excerpts are often given, but the totality is rarely required reading.
McEwan does a wonderful job of making the connections between the film's reception and subsequent focal point of debate and the racism/white supremacism that has permeated US society. How, and when, debate over The Birth of a Nation has become more prominent is coupled with what was happening in seemingly unrelated areas of US society. This shows just how the claim of "art" allows hateful and verifiably false narratives to maintain and promote a white supremacist agenda.
Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in film history and the intersection of film and race in society as a whole.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mere)