The Birth of A Nation was a film that portrayed American life at the time right after slavery. The goal of the film is to make people believe that African Americans cause division. The film also renforced racial biased by making the African American characters seem predatory or uncivilized. The Strivings of the Negro People is about how African Americans had to strive to even get close to their dreams. Du Bois talks about how the world of opportunity were for the white americans, they did not have opportunities to even try and suceed. This Birth of A Nation would have more persuasive given the rhetorical context of early 20th century America.

I think the “knowledge” created by biological determinists and white supremacists in the Supreme Court effected the laws and impacted to US territories. The Supreme Court of the U.S.A in 1901 said that “the alien races of the territories may not be able to understand anglo-saxon laws”. This has effected the voter rights of the territories, they are not allowed to vote for President of the U.S. Samoa residents are not even seen as U.S citizens, they are seen as U.S National.

I will use word to format my paper in MLA.

In Birth of A Nation, the scene with Gus chasing Flora clearly demonstrates the point that Griffith is trying to make. This discourse community believes that African Americans were dangerous and predators, and that white people were heros and innocent. The theory of discourse is that the way people act and think is affected by power structures in society. Clearly, whites were seen as the highest class in society. Therefore, african americans were seen as being at the bottom of society. This affected how some white people acted, they had big egos and were rude and they were afraid of african americans. This is shown in this scene, when Flora is running away from Gus. The theory of multiliteracies is that people talk a certain way based on their discourse communities. At, this time; some whites talked like they knew everything and they talked about african americans in way that showed their disdain for them. These concepts made it possible for Griffith to compose the scenes and get across a white supremacist message. Griffith was already enforcing the beliefs and fears that some white people had. He created further division, by dramatizing that division in the scenes. He fed fear by making african americans seem like predators, he did this by having Gus follow Flora and hold on to her. He enforced the idea of white supremacy by making white characters innocent and civilized.

1. The Guardian was the name of the newspaper in response to both The Birth of a Nation and white supremacy in general. There was a rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan after the the film
2. The Ku Klux Klan put down African Americans and enforced the idea of white supremacy. The NAACP was already founded before the film, they did a lot of work to try and give African Americans a voice against white Supremacy. The Guardian newspaper did this as well.
3. Monroe Trotter grew up in an all white neighborhood and became the valedictorian at his all white school. He founded the Guardian newspaper. He also spent 30 days in jail for fighting against Washington. DuBois wrote in order to give African Americans a book, at this time he wrote, “The Souls of Black Folk”. He wanted to give African Americans a voice.
4. Trotter led the Boston protest outside of the movie theater. Trotter and others tried to get tickets, but they would not sell to African Americans. Trotter got arrested. Then Trotter, Washington and DuBois led a march on the State House. He appealed to the governor to amend the censorship law. However, the film was not banned.
5. Lynching, and killing African Americans was illegal and happened during this time.

Dr. Cameron was about to bash in the head of his daughter, Margaret because he was angry and afraid when he saw the African Ameifcan man touching Margaret. The fears about intermixing are being referenced here are that intermixing is terrible and that that will lead to a lower class person. The fear is that they want to preserve the white race. The other woman he was about to hit was an older woman, who I think was his wife.

The last scene of a city on the hill, people living in paradise with Jesus is Griffith communicating his beliefs. Griffith is saying that white supremacy should be the law through this scene. He is saying that the only people who are worthy, innocent and righteous are white people. He believes that the world will be calm and at harmony if everyone is white, he believes that Jesus is white and that equals pureness.

1. Gus is dressed as a solider, but his clothes are dirty. This tells us that we should be afraid of him.
2. Flora is dressed in a plaid dress, and she has ribbons in her hair. This tells us that we should feel that she is sweet, innocent and childlike.
3. The lighting is darker around Gus, this is made to make him seem more menacing.
4. The lighting is brighter and softer around Flora to make her seem innocent.
5. As Gus is following Flora, he is crouching down and staring intently at Flora.
6. Flora runs around looking at things in nature, she fills up her bucket with water. She jumps around, and looks at a squirrel. She moves back and forth on a log. These activities make her seem very childlike.
7. The music associated with Flora is childlike and playful. The music assoiciated with Gus is tense.
8. The cross-cut editing scene shows her mother frantic and worried as she tells her son that she’s worried about Flora. The cut scene to Ben, shows him worried as he looks for Flora. Gus says I’m a captain now and I want to marry to Flora. It has an iris focused on Flora as she’s nervous looking around. And an iris around Gus that shows that he’s staring at her. This communicates danger, becuase the director wants us to think that Gus is trying to kidnap Flora and make her his bride. Then Flora runs away when he tries to touch her, as she’s running, the music is very suspensful. She hides and then continues running. Then Ben finds her bucket. We see Flora running around with her arms flailing. Then Ben sees Gus, and yells, “hey”, then he finds Flora. And she is taken back to the house to be taken care of.
9. 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. Becuase their discourse and multiliteracies enforced the belief that African Americans were dangerous and predators and they enforced the idea that white people are heros and innocent.

Posted on March 31, 2020Leave a comment

• Basic Terms
• Auteur-French for author. Critics would use this word to describe the person that made a film that showed their personality. Crtics could review American films that had been overlooked by European films.
• Diegesis- events, spaces, objects and characters that live in them. This also includes things, attitudes, and actions that are not explicitly inferred by the audience.
• Editing- putting clips together in one filmstrip.
• Flashback Forward- going back or forward in time
• Focus-light rays from an object or something that pass through the lens. The creates a variation in the depth of field.

Mise-en-scene

• Decor gives a scene context. Lighting helps focus a scene. Typage and costmes portray a character a certain way.

• Decor, rear projection, lighting, space, costumes and typage are very important. Decor helps develop the context of a scene. Lighting helps focus. Space gives depth to a scene. Typage and costume give personality to a character and shows who that character is.

Editing

• Transitions, Parellel-Editing, Dissolving ,Iris and many other techniques add a lot to a film. Transitions are a good way to go seamlessly from one scene to the next. Parallel- Editing show the meaning the director is trying to get across. Dissolving and Iris both have to do with focus.