Editing The Birth of a Nation (section)

==Legacy==
===Film innovations===
In his review of ''The Birth of a Nation'' in ''[[1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die]]'', Jonathan Kline writes that "with countless artistic innovations, Griffith essentially created contemporary film language... virtually every film is beholden to [''The Birth of a Nation''] in one way, shape or form. Griffith introduced the use of dramatic close-ups, tracking shots, and other expressive camera movements; parallel action sequences, crosscutting, and other editing techniques". He added that "the fact that ''The Birth of a Nation'' remains respected and studied to this day—despite its subject matter—reveals its lasting importance."<ref>{{cite book |title= 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die | editor1-first= Steven Jay | editor1-last= Schneider| year= 2014 | edition= 7th |publisher= [[Barron's Educational Series]] |location=Hauppauge, New York |isbn= 978-1844037339 |page= [http://www.barronsbooks.com/cat/1001movies_pg02.pdf 24-25] |oclc= 796279948| series= Quintessence Editions}}</ref>

Griffith helped to pioneer such camera techniques as close-ups, fade-outs, and a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands.<ref name="auto">{{cite book |last=Norton |first=Mary Beth |title=A People and a Nation, Volume II: Since 1865, Brief Edition |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-305-14278-7 |page=487}}</ref> ''The Birth of a Nation'' also contained many new artistic techniques, such as color tinting for dramatic purposes, and featuring its own musical score written for an orchestra.<ref name=":0" />

===Home media and restorations===
For many years, ''The Birth of a Nation'' was poorly represented in home media and restorations. This stemmed from several factors, one of which was the fact that Griffith and others had frequently reworked the film, leaving no definitive version. According to the silent film website ''Brenton Film'', many home media releases of the film consisted of "poor quality DVDs with different edits, scores, [and] running speeds," which were "usually in ''definitely unoriginal'' black and white."<ref name="Brenton Film">{{cite web |url=http://www.brentonfilm.com/articles/the-birth-of-a-nation-controversial-classic-gets-a-definitive-new-restoration |title=The Birth of a Nation: Controversial Classic Gets a Definitive New Restoration |work=Brenton Film |access-date=February 23, 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160225184025/http://www.brentonfilm.com/articles/the-birth-of-a-nation-controversial-classic-gets-a-definitive-new-restoration |archive-date=February 25, 2016 |date=February 17, 2016 }}</ref>

One of the earliest high-quality home versions was film preservationist [[David Shepard (film preservationist)|David Shepard]]'s 1992 transfer of a [[16 mm film|16mm]] print for [[VHS]] and [[LaserDisc]] release via [[Image Entertainment]]. A short documentary, ''The Making of The Birth of a Nation'', newly produced and narrated by Shepard, was also included. Both were released on [[DVD]] by Image in 1998 and the United Kingdom's Eureka Entertainment in 2000.<ref name="Brenton Film" />

In the UK, [[Photoplay Productions]] restored the [[Museum of Modern Art]]'s [[35mm movie film|35mm]] print that was the source of Shepard's 16&nbsp;mm print, though they also augmented it with extra material from the [[British Film Institute]]. It was also given a full orchestral recording of the original Breil score. Though broadcast on [[Channel 4]] television and screened in theaters many times, Photoplay's 1993 version was never released on home video.<ref name="Brenton Film" />

Shepard's transfer and documentary were reissued in the US by [[Kino International (company)|Kino Video]] in 2002, this time in a 2-DVD set with added extras on the second disc. These included several Civil War shorts also directed by D. W. Griffith.<ref name="Brenton Film" /> In 2011, Kino prepared an HD transfer of a 35&nbsp;mm negative from the Paul Killiam Collection. They added some material from the [[Library of Congress]] and gave it a new compilation score. This version was released on [[Blu-ray]] by Kino in the US, Eureka in the UK (as part of their "[[Masters of Cinema]]" collection) and Divisa Home Video in Spain.<ref name="Brenton Film" />

In 2015, the year of the film's centenary, [[Photoplay Productions]]' [[Patrick Stanbury]], in conjunction with the [[British Film Institute]], carried out the first full restoration. It mostly used new [[4K resolution|4K]] scans of the LoC's original camera negative, along with other early generation material. It, too, was given the original Breil score and featured the film's original tinting for the first time since its 1915 release. The restoration was released on a 2-Blu-ray set in the UK and US by the BFI and [[Twilight Time (home video label)|Twilight Time]], alongside a host of extras, including many other newly restored Civil War-related films from the period.<ref name="Brenton Film" />

===In popular culture===
* ''The Birth of a Nation''{{'s}} reverent depiction of the Klan was lampooned in [[Mel Brooks]]'s ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' (1974).<ref>{{cite news|last=Rose|first=Steve|title=From Birth of a Nation to BlacKkKlansman: Hollywood's complex relationship with the KKK|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/13/blackkklansman-spik-lee-hollywood-ku-klux-klan|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=August 13, 2018|access-date=August 9, 2024}}</ref>
* [[Ryan O'Neal]]'s character Leo Harrigan in [[Peter Bogdanovich]]'s ''[[Nickelodeon (film)|Nickelodeon]]'' (1976) attends the premiere of ''The Birth of a Nation'' and realizes that it will change the course of American cinema.<ref>{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Phil|title=The Birth of a Nation: DW Griffith's Distortion of History and its Legacy|url=https://www.walesartsreview.org/the-birth-of-a-nation-dw-griffiths-distortion-of-history-and-its-legacy/|publisher=[[Wales Arts Review]]|date=July 17, 2014|access-date=August 9, 2024}}</ref>
* Clips from Griffith's film are shown in
**[[Robert Zemeckis]]'s ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' (1994), where the footage is meant to portray the [[Forrest Gump (character)|titular character]]'s ancestor and namesake [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.salon.com/2011/02/17/barbour_birth_nation/|title=Still lying about history|first1=Nancy|last1=Isenberg|first2=Andrew|last2=Burnstein|website=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|date=February 17, 2011|access-date=February 26, 2018}}</ref>
** The closing montage of [[Spike Lee]]'s ''[[Bamboozled]]'' (2000), along with other footage from demeaning portrayals of African Americans in early 20th century film<ref name=guardian/>
** Lee's ''[[BlacKkKlansman]]'' (2018), where [[Harry Belafonte]]'s character Jerome Turner speaks about its role in the [[lynching of Jesse Washington]] as the modern Ku Klux Klan led by [[Grand Wizard]] [[David Duke]] ([[Topher Grace]]) screens it as propaganda.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/review-blackkklansman-spike-lee-david-edelstein/|title=Review: Spike Lee's provocative 'BlacKkKlansman'|first1=David|last1=Edelstein|website=[[CBS News]]|date=August 11, 2018|access-date=August 12, 2018}}</ref>
* Director [[Kevin Willmott]]'s [[mockumentary]] ''[[C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America]]'' (2004) portrays an imagined history where the Confederacy won the Civil War. It shows part of an imagined Griffith film, ''The Capture of Dishonest Abe'', which resembles ''The Birth of a Nation'' and was supposedly adapted from Thomas Dixon's ''The Yankee''.<ref name=Brody>{{cite news|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/c-s-a-the-confederate-states-of-america-a-faux-documentary-that-skewers-real-white-supremacy|title='C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America', a Faux Documentary Skewers Real White Supremacy|first=Richard|last=Brody|newspaper=[[The New Yorker]]|date=February 15, 2017|access-date=February 26, 2018}}</ref>
* In [[Justin Simien]]'s ''[[Dear White People]]'' (2014), Sam ([[Tessa Thompson]]) screens a short film called ''The Rebirth of a Nation'' which portrays white people wearing [[Whiteface (performance)|whiteface]] while criticizing [[Barack Obama]].<ref name=guardian/>
* In 2016, [[Nate Parker]] produced and directed the film ''[[The Birth of a Nation (2016 film)|The Birth of a Nation]]'', based on [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion]]; Parker clarified:

<blockquote>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.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://filmmakermagazine.com/97103-five-questions-with-the-birth-of-a-nation-director-nate-parker/#.VsC1bvmLTIU|title = Five Questions with the Birth of a Nation director Nate Parkr|date = 25 January 2016|website = Filmmaker magazine|last = Rezayazdi|first = Soheil|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160128054154/http://filmmakermagazine.com/97103-five-questions-with-the-birth-of-a-nation-director-nate-parker/#.VsC1bvmLTIU|archive-date = January 28, 2016|df = mdy-all}}</ref></blockquote>

* [[Dinesh D'Souza]]'s 2016 [[political documentary]] ''[[Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party]]'' depicts President Wilson and his cabinet viewing ''The Birth of a Nation'' in the White House before a Klansman comes out of the screen and into the real world. The film is meant to accuse the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] and the [[Modern liberalism in the United States|American political left]] in covering up its past support of white supremacy and continuing it through [[Social programs in the United States|welfare policies]] and [[Political machine|machine politics]].<ref name=av>{{cite web |work= [[The A.V. Club]] |url= https://www.avclub.com/hitler-was-liberal-is-just-one-insight-offered-by-din-1827969170 |last= Rizov |first= Vadim |title= 'Hitler was liberal' is just one insight offered by Dinesh D'Souza's fraudulent Death Of A Nation |date= May 25, 2017 |access-date= August 4, 2018}}</ref> The title of D'Souza's 2018 film ''[[Death of a Nation (2018 film)|The Death of a Nation]]'' is a reference to Griffith's film, and like his previous film is meant to accuse the Democratic Party, and historical American left-wing of racism.<ref name=av/>
* In 2019, [[Bowling Green State University]] renamed its Gish Film Theater, which was named for actress [[Lillian Gish]], after protests alleging that using her name is inappropriate because of her role in ''The Birth of a Nation''.<ref>{{cite news
|title=When the Names on Campus Buildings Evoke a Racist Past
|first=Laura M.
|last=Holson
|date=May 23, 2019
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/task-force-university-racism.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/us/task-force-university-racism.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited}}{{cbignore}}</ref>