THE BIRTH OF A RACE was envisioned as an "answer" to D.W. Griffith's racist and inflammatory film, THE BIRTH OF A NATION. Unfortunately, due to cost overruns, mismanagement and the strings that came attached with white money, the film failed to achieve its original goals. The result was a film that was hardly about African-Americans at all, but about the struggle of white immigrants in this country. It was a failed attempt to counteract the damage that THE BIRTH OF A NATION caused to the image of the African-American. Even with its many shortcomings from both a technical as well as artistic standpoint, THE BIRTH OF A RACE at least demonstrated that motion pictures were indeed a medium to be reckoned with that has an enormous capability to influence a large number of people.
Review of The Birth of a Race
