Set against the antebellum South and based on a true story, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer) accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves.
As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself, his wife Cherry (Aja Naomi King), and fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION is a Fox Searchlight Pictures Presentation, a Bron Studios, Phantom Four, Mandalay Pictures, Tiny Giant Productions Production, in association With Novofam Productions, Follow Through Productions, Infinity Entertainment, Oster Media, Point Made Films, Juniper Productions, Argent Pictures, Hit 55 Ventures and Creative Wealth Media Finance Corp. BIRTH OF A NATION is directed by Nate Parker. The screenplay is by Parker; story is by Parker & Jean McGianni Celestin. The film stars Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union with Penelope Ann Miller and Jackie Earle Haley.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION is produced by Nate Parker, Kevin Turen, Jason Michael Berman, Aaron L. Gilbert, Preston L. Holmes. Executive producers are David S. Goyer, Michael Novogratz, Michael Finley, Tony Parker, Jason Cloth, Andy Pollack, Allan J. Stitt, Jane Oster, Barb Lee, Carl H. Lindner III, Derrick Brooks, Jill and Ryan Ahrens, Armin Tehrany, Edward Zwick, Mark Moran. Co-Executive producers are John Raymonds, Brenda Gilbert, Steven Thibault, Lori Massini. Co-Producers are Zak Tanjeloff, Matthew Lindner, Harrison Kreiss, Ike Waldhaus, Benjamin Renzo. The filmmaking team includes director of photography Elliot Davis, production designer Geoffrey Kirkland, editor Steven Rosenblum, A.C.E., costumer designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck, music by Henry Jackman, visual effects supervisor George A. Loucas and casting byMary Vernieu, CSA and Michelle Wade Byrd, CSA
Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion
The Turner slave rebellion stands as one of the most influential acts of resistance against slavery in all American history, yet remarkably, the story has never been recounted in a contemporary screen drama. Contentious to some and inspirational to many, until now, the life and impact of Nat Turner has largely been confined to folktales, novels, documentaries and a few paragraphs here and there in history books.
THE BIRTH OF A NATION puts a focused new lens to Turner’s story – taking on the incendiary notions of retaliation and how the institution of slavery continues to afflict and inform present times. The film offers a fresh perspective on what led to his insurrection against slave owners in 1831, and offers a comprehensive and human portrait of the man behind the rebellion – a man driven by faith and a confidence that God is on the side of the oppressed.
Writer, director and actor Nate Parker takes on a distinctly vast ambition for a first-time filmmaker, presenting a more take-charge slave narrative than we are used to seeing. Amidst sweeping action and romance he presents a man driven equally by love, spirituality, fury and hope to free his people from the legacy of bondage in America. In the process, he restores a figure long relegated as a historical footnote and shows him as the heroic trailblazer he was.
It is no accident that Parker has boldly reclaimed the title of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, which, while pioneering modern film techniques, somehow portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as a force for good – a graphic reminder of how racial imagery smoldered in the early days of Hollywood. Parker offers his film as the birth of something new, an alternate take on the birth of this nation – the unsung story of those who have pressed the country forward in their yearning to be free and equal.
Several films have explored slavery, from 12 YEARS A SLAVE to GLORY, AMISTAD and LINCOLN, Parker’s motivation is to renew the past and to seek illumination from it, rather than turn the same blind eye that kept people in the dark for so long. Says Parker: “Nat Turner became a leader against incredible odds. So often when we see slavery in popular culture, it is through stories of suffering and endurance. But Nat Turner’s is a more incendiary narrative; he was a slave but also a true rebel against injustice. His story demands to be told honestly; it is timely and speaks to the aspiration of finding racial peace in this country. For me, calling the film THE BIRTH OF A NATION was about reclaiming those words, about righting a wrong – and turning the title into something that can inspire. It leaves us with a question we must ask if we are to heal as a nation: when injustice knocks at our own front door, are we going to counter it with everything we have?”
For Parker, the film was also an answer to a calling he had felt throughout his life – and worth taking a considerable personal risk to pursue. “I have asked myself how I could be most effective as a filmmaker: I can either keep reading these scripts that project people of color in stereotypical, counterproductive ways or I can put everything I am into a project that I believe will change the conversation and create the opportunity for sustainable change,” Parker explains.
Parker knew he had five daughters relying on him, but he also knew he wanted those daughters to look at him and see someone who did not shrink in the face of what he felt needed to be done. “Everyone said, if this doesn’t work it could affect you being relevant in this town as an actor or from an economic standpoint, being able to support your family. So I had to ask, are you willing to go down that road? But when I thought back to the Denmark Veseys, the Harriet Tubmans, the Nat Turners who were willing to give their lives, I said surely I can step away from acting for a couple of years and just see what happens.”
There was no guarantee Parker would get there but with the inspiration of so many others – who sacrificed so much more than a motion picture career – he found a fire burning within that could not be squelched.
“Now I feel so desperately blessed that I was able to tell this story and do it in such a way that I had the control that I did,” Parker concludes. “If I had to go back and do it again, as arduous as it was, I would do it the exact same way. The takeaway of the film is what I had hoped: wherever injustice lives in the world, it is our duty to face it down.”
Nate Parker in American Culture
Nat Turner has long been one of the most captivating, mysterious and perhaps misunderstood historical figures in the ongoing making of an equal America. His unflinching resistance to the institution of slavery is often cited as integral to the buildup of the Civil War as an act that alarmed and hardened the hearts of Southern slave owners yet raised imperative questions about the morality and sustainability of the so-called “peculiar institution” that stole away the freedom, dignity and destinies of millions.
To Nate Parker, Nat was not so far removed from an African American version of BRAVEHEART’s William Wallace, who roused and united the Medieval Scots against their oppressors at a time when no one thought it was possible.
Despite growing up in Virginia near where the Turner insurrection occurred, Nate Parker did not once hear the name Nat Turner in school. “I heard it in whispers and from family members,” he recalls. “As if they were conjuring the very spirit of rebellion. But it wasn’t until I was in college, taking African-American Studies that I really learned about him. When I did, I thought ‘how is it possible that I didn’t know about this?’ Yet it happened right in my back yard.”
That denial of this essential history lit a fire in Parker. He needed to know more. And the more he tried to trace Turner’s past, the more he was drawn to a figure who was not at all the savage fanatic portrayed in popular books and legends. Instead, Parker discovered the historical Nat Turner was a spiritually-fueled man of astute intelligence who viewed slavery as a symbol of Satan on earth – and came to believe the only way the world could be set right was to “cut off the head of the serpent.”
“This is someone who tried to make a difference in spite of the impossible odds of his environment. I had always longed for that kind of hero, and he’d been withheld from us,” Parker says. He saw in Turner “a measured, self-determined man of faith, whose courage and belief allowed him to sacrifice himself for his family and the future.”
Parker also began to realize that just as in life Turner had never owned his identity, this repeated itself after his death. No one knows Turner’s true surname or where his desecrated body is buried. In the last 200 years, Turner’s image had been used to signify many things. He’d been vilified as an aberrational extremist, re-imagined as a lusty metaphor for a “slave mindset” and exalted as a political revolutionary. Yet the man’s real life and source of his courage seemed lost in all that.
THE INFLUENCES ON NAT TURNER: RELIGION AND THE BIBLE
“If Nat Turner wasn’t a preacher, I don’t think I would have been interested in this story,” Parker states. “If he was about anger for anger’s sake, I wouldn’t be interested. There’s nothing about me that wants to celebrate that. That he did what he did as a last resort meant something to me. That he was so obedient to his faith right to the end meant something to me. The true history suggests he was a measured man, a man who toiled over what he felt he had to do and how to do it. His actions speak more to slavery and what it does to men than it does to some half-baked notions of fanaticism. Nat Turner resisted, but he resisted in the name of God and clear injustice.”
Parker points to the fact that Turner, by necessity, drew his moral convictions solely from the Bible, the only book he’d ever known. “It was the only book he had at all,” he notes. “It was his only tool. So I imagine he saw therein that the Bible is full of stories about people who rose up against oppression – and he must have asked himself, if the Bible is real and these people are oppressors, what is God’s message to me? The only imaginable answer was that he must stand on the side of the oppressed. It’s constant in the Bible, constant, that God is on the side of the oppressed, which meant the slave-owners were on the wrong side.”
The irony does not escape Parker. “It is interesting that the very book that was supposed to be used to make him docile was the thing that liberated him and gave him a riotous disposition toward the injustices that were affecting him and other oppressed people,” he points out.
The Smithsonian currently holds what is thought to be the Bible that Nat Turner was holding when he was captured two months after the rebellion. The Bible was donated to the museum by descendants of Lavinia Francis, a slaveholder who survived the rebellion.
CHANNELING NAT TURNER: NATE PARKER THE ACTOR
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”
― Muhammad Ali
Having spent so many years embroiled in Nat Turner’s life and times, when it came time to portray him, Parker felt the substance of the man was already deep in his bones. But he wanted to go further. “I felt like Nat was with me, I felt I had a guide,” he describes. “And I knew there had to be that sense of sacrifice. So I fasted and I prayed and did all the things that Nate felt he had to do at that time. And my life changed a lot. I knew I couldn’t fake it. I really went for it – because I wanted so desperately to make Nat Turner proud and to make my people proud.”
It intrigued Parker to think about the fact that although Turner was by all accounts learned and brilliant, for most of his life the only book he had access to was the Bible. “He was so in alignment with his faith. It was said that he was never seen to spend money or to drink. All he ever had as currency was his faith that he was destined for something,” Parker explains.
Parker says that despite also serving as director, he was always able to focus 100% of his intensity into the performance. “It is due to the fact that I prepped like a madman,” he explains. “I put in the hours and the days and the months and I obsessed and I took no rest. Sunday was the only day I stepped away from the movie and took a break. So when it came time to do the work, it was there. I had no doubts if I had the capacity to embody this man.”
That conviction came through in his performance. “What’s interesting is how much conflict you see in the character as Nate portrays him,” says producer Jason Berman. “The Turner slave rebellion was brutal and women and children were killed. Yet even when we see Nat wielding an ax, we see into his soul and his belief that he must do this for reasons that are bigger than himself.”
Adds Preston Holmes: “Nate really shows how Nat’s faith is tested, how he must try to reconcile God’s message of love with the plight of his people. Nat Turner didn’t start out wanting to foment revolt. He tried another approach but he reached a point that he felt he had to act.”
ASSEMBLING THE CAST: VISIONS FULFILLED
When it came to finding his actors for THE BIRTH OF A NATION, Parker worked closely with casting director Mary Vernieu — but he already had in his mind the qualities he sought for of the film’s characters. “Nate essentially handpicked every person on the cast for a reason and the talent level on this film is through-the-roof,” says producer Gilbert.
One of the most difficult roles to cast was that of Samuel Turner, Nat Turner’s boyhood friend turned master — who, despite a torn conscience and a gentler hand than many, nevertheless is a complicit part of the gearworks of the slavery system. To portray such a complicated man, one who reflects both unquestioned privilege and unease about his own inhumanity, Parker was quickly led to Armie Hammer. Hammer, the great grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, is known for his roles in THE SOCIAL NETWORK, J. EDGAR and THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. He and Parker found an instant rapport essential for these two men who grew up together yet came from irreconcilable worlds.
“Armie and I were completely in line together on how to portray his character,” says Parker. “I knew he would help me carry the weight of this film. His character is challenging but Armie himself is one of the nicest, kindest and most disciplined people you could ever meet. Throughout the movie, he was my linchpin – he was always so prepared and committed to the work.”
For Hammer, the unapologetically grand ambitions of the story were irresistible. “I took this project because I thought the message behind it was incredible. It speaks volumes about the past but also sheds light on things that we have not really addressed and we have not really gotten over. This story is part of the genesis of what is going on right now in America. I think it’s a beautiful thing that Nate called it THE BIRTH OF A NATION, because Nate is showing the roots of a movement.”
Hammer was also thrilled to be part of Parker’s directorial debut. “Nate’s one of the most passionate filmmakers I’ve ever seen,” he muses. “It was incredible to think this was the first time he was directing a major feature and that he was also the writer and the star.”
Bringing both romance and a searing motivation to Nat Turner’s life is his wife, Cherry, a fellow slave he was believed to have married in the early 1820s. Taking the role of a woman who finds her own strength despite being denied her identity is newcomer Aja Naomi King, best known for the ABC legal drama “How to Get Away with Murder.”
“Aja gives a breakout performance in this film,” comments Parker. “She portrays a woman who went through so much, it can be hard to imagine, but she showed up in every moment.”
There was no hesitation for King in taking the role; the screenplay hit her hard right away. “I thought it was such a powerful story. This is the first time I’ve seen a story of slavery where it’s the slave who is a hero and decides to stand up for himself, versus waiting for someone else to come in and save the day. That’s something new,” she points out. “I greatly admired Nate’s bravery.”
Like many, King had heard of Nat Turner, but knew little beyond that. “I didn’t know, for example, that people thought he was a visionary and it was always expected that he was meant to be something more,” she explains. “In school, we only touched on slavery, so I think it’s so exciting to get this inside look at what the country was really like during this time, which as history goes, was really just yesterday. I think we need this story — and from this perspective.”
King spoke at length with Parker about how to give Cherry a fiery independence despite her position in society. “Nate really wanted to empower her and I very much agreed and was excited he was thinking in this way,” says the actress. “I love that when Nat decides to go to war against slavery, it starts as a conversation between him and Cherry, and it’s important to him that she is behind him.”
It was also an interesting proposition to think about how a woman like Cherry might approach love under such precarious circumstances. King notes that it takes both of them time to find the strength to open up – and that Nat is initially moved to stand up for Cherry, as an abused slave on the auction block, long before he woos her. “It’s not as if Nat looks at Cherry on the auction block and thinks ‘here is the woman I will marry.’ I think he feels he can’t live with himself if he sees one more horrible thing happen to this human being. Yet, that’s the beginning of their relationship. It’s only later that he starts to really see who she is and their love story truly begins.”
Uncertainty always looms over their romance. “Back then, as a slave, someone could separate you from your loved ones at any second, and you had no choice in the matter,” points out King. “The love story inside this story is so beautiful because Nat and Cherry have this one chance to choose each other and to have a baby and it’s the first time in their lives they feel they can possess something of their own. For Cherry, it’s the first time she believes she can trust someone and feels cherished.”
The chemistry between King and Parker was organic from the start. “As soon as we were in the room together, it just clicked,” she recalls. “Just holding each other’s gaze could be so powerful because I think Nat and Cherry are always very aware they could be separated without warning. They had to drink each other in as much as they could, while they could.”
Penelope Ann Miller (“American Crime,” THE ARTIST) portrays one of the film’s most morally complicated roles as Benjamin Turner’s wife, Elizabeth, a woman born in to slave ownership who nevertheless encourages a young Nat to read and develop his keen mind and faith. Miller sees Elizabeth as a subversive in her own way. “Women in those days didn’t have many rights either,” she points out. “So I find that these two people bonded in this interesting, risky way. She saw that Nat had a gift, and she thought that she could help him by taking him under her wing. Since her husband was a preacher, maybe she thought, ‘Well, I can get away with this because I’m only going teach him the Bible.’ I see her as being very progressive. But you can also look at my character and say regardless of her compassion for Nat, she still kept slaves and could have done more. I saw the complexity of that. But I could only play her as I believe she saw herself. I don’t believe she saw herself as an evil woman, but ethically there were a lot of things wrong with the entire situation she was in.”
One of the film’s veterans is Academy Award®-nominated actor Jackie Earle Haley (LITTLE CHILDREN, LINCOLN) who takes on the sordid role of a slave patrol captain searching for Nat Turner’s escaped father. Haley too was drawn to the fresh outlook. “We know this as such a despicable time that it’s great to see people rising up and saying they’re not going to take it anymore,” he observes. “I felt it’s a story that demands to be seen – and I saw Nate was fully prepared to attack it.”
It wasn’t easy to get under the skin of a typical slave owner. Haley confesses: “Just the way my character talks to people was difficult for me to accept, but it was probably even worse in real life. It felt really good to help this story but it is a bummer to try to put a face on a person like this.”
Award-winning theatre star Colman Domingo, who previously starred with Nate Parker in Spike Lee’s RED HOOK SUMMER, plays the real-life slave known as Hark. “Hark was very much a brother to Nat Turner, and kind of his first lieutenant,” explains Domingo. “According to the research I was able to do, Hark was a jocular person, someone who was funny and who might be a bit subversive with a slave master, saying ‘oh yes, sir, all right, if that’s what you want.’ He was kind of a sweet, innocent guy but the world had its way with him, and a lot of what he loved was stripped from him.”
Hark’s losses are what convince him to join forces with Nat Turner. “I think he wanted to do something and make a difference — not for himself but for future generations more than anything,” says Domingo.
For all the difficulty his character experiences, Domingo loves his joyful moments especially at Nat and Cherry’s wedding. “That scene is so poignant and beautiful because everyone is so free,” he observes. “It was great to imagine these moments of lightness in slave times, because there had to be many. That’s the reason I’m here, and I know it. I know as a descendant of slaves, the reason why I’m here right now is because my ancestors danced and laughed and they loved.”
The cast also includes popular star Gabrielle Union (“Being Mary Jane”), who took the small role of Hark’s wife Esther because she was so driven to support the film. Says Union: “Nat Turner is pretty much the only story I heard in school that I could rally around, his and Harriet Tubman’s. But I just never thought that the Nat Turner story would be made, for obvious reasons. So when I heard Nate had actually put it together, I stalked him and then I Skyped him and I begged him for a role.” Despite the role’s size, it felt life-changing to Union. “It was easily the most challenging, heart wrenching, gut busting, difficult role I have ever taken on, and it’s by far the most important,” she says.
Dwight Henry (12 YEARS A SLAVE, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD) portrays Turner’s father, likely a seminal figure in Nat’s development – but Henry confesses he almost walked away from the project because he could not countenance being humiliated and whipped by white supremacists. Yet, after some soul-searching reflection, he says he came to the conclusion the film “was important for the future.” That reflection led him to better understand Isaac Turner.
“I’m a father too,” says Henry. “I have five kids. And as a father, your ultimate goal in life is to be able to teach our children morals, how to live, how to love and how to be happy. I believe that’s what Isaac Turner did for little Nat. He taught him there’s a purpose in life. Without his father instilling in him how to care about people, I don’t think Nat would have become the person that he was. He’s a man who sacrificed his life for his family.”
Mark Boone, Jr. of “Sons of Anarchy” makes his own departure as the crafty preacher Reverend Wathel, who suggests that Nat Turner’s slave-master use his preaching skills for money and influence. Boone describes him as “a man of standing in the community with a certain amount of power … but not an upstanding person.” He goes on: “The Reverend sees that Nat has a facility with, with speech and the Bible, and he sees there is money in that. It’s known that some churches propped up slavery at that time – and I think that’s what the Reverend expects Nat to do.”
The great irony is that Nat does the very opposite of what Boone expects. Boone notes that in the film Nat Turner sees right through the preacher’s cherry picking of the Lord’s word. “There is a scene that really pinpoints that the white population is ignoring certain teachings of the Bible that would certainly not support the slave system,” he says. “I think it crystallizes something for Nat and is a turning point for him. At first, Nat used the Bible to shore up his family and other slaves who were suffering. But he came to believe he was acting within his faith when he turned against the system that was keeping them all down.”
Aunjanue Ellis (“Quantico,” THE HELP) took on the weighty role of Nat Turner’s mother, Nancy. “One of the things Nate wanted to do was to have a straight line between who Nat was and where he came from – and Nancy is the conduit of that in the film,” she explains. “I think she saw as a mother there was something different about him, and she wanted to protect him but she also saw there was something inevitable about where he was headed. I think Nancy was constantly having to let go of Nat. She had to let him go in service of things that are bigger than all of us.”
“Nat’s strength came from the women in his life,” says Parker, emphasizing the key role black women played in the film, particularly his mother and grandmother, who were very religious. “There’s a reason why his grandmother and mother are the head of the household. At one point, we were emasculated as black men so it was often that women stepped in to fill that role. We cannot negate the fact that black women have been critical component for us as a people.”
For Esther Scott (TRANSFORMERS, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS), who plays Bridget Turner, the entire story was an inspiration. “These things are still going on, with people hating each other and fighting each other and not seeing the larger picture. There is still so much work to be done, which makes Nat Turner’s rebellion so timely for today. I feel this film is necessary. It is needed. We need that awareness that lives were lost to get us to where we are now and the struggle is not over,” says Scott.
Roger Guenveur Smith (AMERICAN GANGSTER) has the heartbreaking role of Isaiah, the domestic servant whose job included delivering women to the plantation owner at night. “Isaiah is forced against his better will, and his better sense of ethics, to deliver Esther to Samuel Turner’s dinner guest, Mr. Randall,” Smith explains. “It was a particularly difficult scene to play. But it is a scene that was played in fact over and over again in the South.”
Says Nate Parker of the character: “The reality is that most people are Isaiah. Most people are not Nat Turner, unless they’re activated. Most people are saying I have these few small things I’ve been given and if I fight for more, I face the possibility of losing everything. It’s the feeling of ‘I can’t escape this.’”
Like so many others involved in the film, Smith felt a profound responsibility to tell this story a new way. “I think we all felt a certain obligation to tell the story the best way that we can,” he summarizes. “It’s not just an exercise in nostalgia but a story that resonates in the present moment.”
CRAFTING THE OLD SOUTH FOR A NEW DAY
THE BIRTH OF A NATION was shot in just 27 fast-moving days on location in sweltering yet lush Savannah, Georgia where remnants of the Old South helped transport cast, crew and audience back to the atmosphere of antebellum times. Nate Parker further turned back the hands of time by asking for a no-cell-phone set and insisting on using real former plantations, where the ghosts of the past are still palpable in ineffable ways. “With the actors, I wanted to always feel we were in the moment, that were transcending time, that were really there in 1830s Virginia,” says Parker.
Reconstructing an entire world on a limited budget demanded high creativity. Says Kevin Turen: “We were faced with a challenge: to make an uncompromising period film that felt every bit as big in scope as the script Nate wrote. That was extremely difficult. But we were fortunate to have a team with great insight into where to put our priorities and how to get the absolute most out of what we had. It was all led by Nate, who was always incredibly organized and able to wear all hats.”
To merge the pace of an action thriller with Turner’s internal world of dreamlike spiritual revelations, Parker chose cinematographer Elliot Davis, whose films have ranged from acclaimed historical drama THE IRON LADY and the teen phenomenon TWILIGHT to the stylish thriller OUT OF SIGHT and indie classic THIRTEEN). “Elliot shot one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen, THE IRON LADY,” explains the writer-director, “I loved the weight of Elliot’s camera — how it was still when it needed to be and when it moved, stillness remained. We were really blessed in getting him and his team.”
Originally trained as an architect, Davis brings a structural intelligence to his photography merged with a painterly beauty. But more than that, he was another person drawn passionately to Parker’s bold POV on American history. “I’ve had long history of socially-conscious filmmaking,” notes Davis. “Interestingly, my early film education was with the Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima, so that was always a part of my consciousness. So for me, this film felt like it was a coming from a context I understand, but also was so timely because we all see the conflicts around us getting sharper now.”
Immediately, Davis found an artistic bond with Parker. “My thrust as a cinematographer has been to increase the subjectivity of the audience — to bring the audience and what they’re seeing on screen closer and closer together. I love playing with the contrast levels — with dark darks and white whites – that make you feel something. And Nate responded to that,” says Davis. “When I first walked into his office, he had walls of photos from my films and the thing they all shared in common were de-saturated cool tones. We both felt drawn toward using cooler blue-green imagery for this film that feels more modern and has none of the pretense of sepia-toned history. I think that is the basis of the look: we’re seeing Nat Turner’s world through modern eyes. And that approach took on a life of its own.”
Parker’s vision was full of stark contrasts. “I knew I wanted a very cold and saturated feeling because these were our Dark Ages. I didn’t want to go with the typical golds and browns of most slave-era films. When Nat gives Cherry a bouquet of flowers it’s one of the first bursts of color in the film and you really feel it. You see something so beautiful happening amidst the darkness and grit.”
Creative lighting was essential throughout. “We had to really think about lighting in every frame because there was also a lot of night shooting and there were a lot of technical challenges. I was looking at Andrei Tarkovsky’s polaroids that used a very soft, cloudy kind of light,” recalls Davis. “The light causes white skin to be more pale and black tones to pop out.”
The array of human expressions especially interests Davis and his camera. “I’m very big on faces – because that’s what the audience connects with most,” he comments. “I see my role as sculpting faces with light the way I want so as to enhance the emotion that is emitted.”
The speed of the production also pressed Davis’ creativity. “We usually only had time for one or two takes and that was it,” the cinematographer muses. “It often felt like we were working to a stopwatch, but it really brought my crew very tightly together. Everybody was totally in lock-step.”
Davis used the Arri Alexa cameras, with which he has been experimenting for years, having been the first person to shoot an Alexa in full anamorphic on Keanu Reeves’ MAN OF TAI CHI. “By shooting this film in wide screen we were really able to utilize negative space in ways that give the look of the film a power that pushes the story forward,” Davis observes. “I hope the overall effect of the photography gives audiences just enough distance on the story to see it clearly, while also luring them in.”
Throughout, Davis was bolstered by Parker’s strong vision. “Nate had a very big hand in the composition of the film. He’d lived with this story for so long that every frame was etched inside his brain before we started shooting. And it’s a real achievement,” he concludes. “The film is about ideas that are stronger than color divides.”
One of the toughest jobs of all on THE BIRTH OF A NATION fell to production designer Geoffrey Kirkland, faced with bringing a range of plantations – from the manicured Turner plantation to the rough-hewn Fowler plantation where Nat sees what cannot be unseen — to life on a shoestring.
Fortunately, the Academy Award nominated Kirkland had the experience to make it happen. “The design the film was a hugely important,” notes Parker. “When I came across Geoffrey who most people know from CHILDREN OF MEN and THE RIGHT STUFF, I instantly saw he had both insight into the period and a passion for the story. He saved the movie so many times over, making very little money go a long way. In the end, we had beautiful, transporting sets.”
Those sets also had to come alive with the electric chaos of an all-out insurrection. With only two days to shoot the main battle sequences leading up to the confrontation at the Jerusalem armory, it was an intensive effort to pull it all off. “Guss Williams was our stunt coordinator and he went above and beyond what I asked him to do,” says Parker. “No matter what I asked him to do he always said ‘Yes I can.’ He brought a team that was so experienced and so excited to be there, they got it done.”
That was typical of the all-out attitude that permeated the set. “On every level, we were looking for bold, epic work – from the color to the sound – and everyone on the crew stepped up and sort of willed this film to become more than anyone could have imagined,” says Gilbert.
Equally key to the film’s look are the film’s costumes by Francine Jamison Tanchuck, who earlier in her career designed the costumes for Edward Zwick’s Oscar®-winning GLORY. As on that film, historical realism meets textural imagination in BIRTH OF A NATION.
Right off the bat, Tanchuck was excited to collaborate with Parker. “Nate and I were in constant conversation regarding the authenticity of the period and the clothing to present this unfortunate but very real part of American history. As much as we try to sweep it in a closet, a very large portion of this nation was built from the blood and sweat of slave labor. Slavery was and still is a stain on the American culture, and I think seeing the lives of those enslaved as they really were, tells us much about our history,” she says.
Tanchuck began with intensive research, as much as was possible given the lack of extensive documentation. “Because this was the early 1800’s, it was pre-photography,” the costume designer notes, “so we had to rely on museum pieces and artwork of the period.”
Though much of slave clothing was makeshift or hand-me-downs, Tanchuck honed in on the rare pieces that subtly referenced the African heritage that was so vital to a culture of people torn from their homes. “African influences were usually kept in secret due to the heinous policy of the slave-owners to strip these people of whatever semblance they still had of their culture, so they could be entirely dependent on the slavers,” she explains. “But Nate and I thought it would add to the costumes, especially for the elders, to have a few items recreated from their memories – items such as necklaces or bracelets made from old rope and broken jewelry pieces that might have found, and headscarves made from flour sacks.”
All of the clothing Tanchuck designed was quite literally put to the grindstone. “It was extremely important for the clothing to reflect the real work and living conditions of Virginia slaves,” Tanchuck comments. “They were given a certain amount of clothing to wear, and when those garments wore out, there were no more. So many people were forced to work, sleep and perform every other function in rags. If they could do mending, they used whatever they could find: burlap bags that carried feed for livestock, old carpets or sheets, or blankets that were frequently used for patching, and that is only if the slave owners supplied them with these goods. So the costumes reflect those horrible conditions. For us, it meant weeks of aging and dyeing fabrics to show that deterioration. It was essential for creating this world which Nat Turner turns against.”
Parker approached the job of directing with a coach-like attitude. Observes Gilbert: “What you normally see on sets is everyone catering to the director but on this film you saw Nate catering to cast and crew. Every night he’d write an e-mail thanking people, encouraging people, and it really kept everyone’s spirits high. Then every morning he began with a motivational talk. He instilled everyone with the feeling that everything they brought was appreciated and meaningful.”
The final touches on THE BIRTH OF A NATION were as important to Parker as his first words on the page. He engaged editor Steven Rosenblum — who not coincidentally edited Edward Zwick’s GLORY and Mel Gibson’s BRAVEHEART, both of which garnered Oscar®-nominations – to bring a symphonic sense of pace and dramatic crescendo. Then, he searched for a composer who could evoke the period with both African and early American influences – and came up with a surprising choice: the English composer Henry Jackman, best known for big hit films ranging from X-MEN: FIRST CLASS to KICK-ASS and CAPTAIN PHILLIPS.
“Henry hadn’t done a film like this before but he is a genius,” comments Parker. “Never have you heard Africanized sounds and orchestral music merged in this way. We had a great collaboration, working note-by-note together. He honed every single cue to perfection and he created something essential to the experience of the film.”
They also brought in Wiley College’s a capella choir as well as Alex Boyé – a Utah-based, British-born singer of Nigerian heritage — who add the power of human voices to the soundtrack.
Jackman recalls his earliest conversations with Parker: “One of his frustrations was the lack of a universal African-American hero. He said if you watch BRAVEHEART, you don’t need to be Scottish to relate to the plight of the Scots because you feel that a universal state of the character’s heroism. That’s what he wanted to do so we talked about using a universal musical language.”
At the same time, Jackman brought in strains of African ceremonial music and gospel choirs in unexpected ways. “Nate was really keen on using a gospel choir, but not as a musical cliché, but rather a sort of misappropriation. So we have the sound of spirituals but it’s more like ancestral folk music.”
Seeing an early cut of the film hit Jackman hard and further sparked his creativity. “What I found so impressive is that the film looks like a living painting. It has an extremely high level of out-and-out craft, and it’s portrayed so beautifully, but that actually doesn’t detract at all from how horrific and important the subject matter is … you don’t feel distanced from what is happening to Nat by it being a period piece. That’s quite difficult to accomplish,” he remarks.
CREATING CONVERSATIONS FOR THE FUTURE
“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just – a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”
― Abraham Lincoln
Everyone involved in the film was buoyed not just by Parker’s fervor but also by the sense they were telling a story that might do what is increasingly difficult in entertainment: to get people talking about things that matter. “This is a film that has the potential to stir controversy but also spark big conversations,” says Aaron Gilbert. “That’s part of what has us all so excited about it.”
Says Preston Holmes: “I think the more that people know about the true history of our country … the more understanding it will foster between us as Americans and as human beings.”
Nate Parker is sanguine about the likely reactions to the film. He knows there are those who it will rankle and many who may learn about Nat Turner’s heart stopping actions for the first time, but he hopes for one particular reaction across the board: empathy.
“I hope that you cannot watch this film and not have empathy,” he concludes. “My goal was to create the mirror of all mirrors on this subject and I challenge the grand wizard of the KKK to not be moved by the film’s humanity. When I see Nat Turner in the final moments of the film, it moves me to tears every time. He is so heroic … and this is what I was missing my entire life. It’s the pride you’ve longed for, the pride you’ve never felt or been allowed to feel.”
“For me, this film is about the hope of untethering the industry from our dark past, about the opportunity to retell the narrative of America in new ways. It is an attempt at a rebirth in a sense – a rebirth where we acknowledge the truth so we can move forward, a rebirth in which, to new audiences, the phrase THE BIRTH OF A NATION will now refer to Nat Turner’s legend – the antithesis of what Griffith intended.”
For Parker, the film will succeed if it not only shines a light on the hidden past but also ignites conversations about intolerance, equality and the devaluing of black lives in our era – an era in which racial narratives thought by some to belong to the past still play out over and over. Parker sums up: “It’s not until we have an honest confrontation about how we got where we are now that we will ever be able to heal. Gone are the days that we can hope that things will change without us.”
“You must resist the common urge toward the comforting narrative of divine law, toward fairy tales that imply some irrepressible justice. The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine. Enslavement was not destined to end, and it is wrong to claim our present circumstance—no matter how improved—as the redemption for the lives of people who never asked for the posthumous, untouchable glory of dying for their children. Our triumphs can never compensate for this.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
NAT TURNER’S REBELLION: TIMELINE
October 2, 1800: Nat Turner is born to a slave kidnapped from West Africa, on the Virginia farm of Benjamin Turner. That same year, the Virginia slave Gabriel Prosser plans a large rebellion of his brethren but when word is leaked, Prosser and 25 followers are hanged. (Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802, by Douglas R. Egerton.) Turner is said from birth to have physical signs of being a prophet and learns to read at any early age. (Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in Memory and History, by Kenneth Greenberg)
Unknown Date, 1810-1811: Nat’s father escapes from the Turner plantation. (Nat Turner and the Rising In Southampton County by David F Allmendinger Jr.)
Unknown Date, 1817: Turner is said to begin experiencing religious visions. He soon becomes known as “the slave preacher.” (The Confessions of Nat Turner, by Thomas Gray.)
Unknown Date, 1821-1822: Turner marries a slave named Cherry. (The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt by Patrick H. Breen.)
February, 1831: An eclipse of the sun becomes a sign to Turner that it is time to act. He begins holding secret meetings with fellow slaves Hark Travis, Henry Porter, Samuel Francis, Will Francis and Nelson William to outline a strategy to stage a successful revolt. (The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents by Kenneth S. Greenberg.)
August 21, 1831: The slave rebellion starts late at night as 31 year-old Turner and others turn the tables on their slave “masters,” murdering them as they sleep. The rebels travel from house-to-house in Southampton, liberating slaves, expanding their army and ultimately killing around 60 white people by knife, axe, club and gun. (Fires of Jubilee, Oates.)
August 23, 1831: The slave rebellion marches towards the armory in Jerusalem, where they are confronted by a large militia, including state and federal troops. (The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents by Kenneth S. Greenberg.) Though Turner escapes, dozens of slaves are captured and hanged without trial. (The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt by Patrick H. Breen.)
Fall, 1831: Brutal reprisals begin, with hundreds of slaves who had nothing to do with the rebellion killed in retribution. Severed heads of slaves are displayed to deter further revolts. (Fires of Jubilee, Oates.)
October, 30, 1831: After 68 days in hiding, Turner surrenders to a local farmer. (Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in Memory and History, by Kenneth Greenberg). He is held in the County Jail, where he purportedly makes his confessions to the lawyer turned writer (and slave-owner) Thomas Gray. (The Confessions of Nat Turner, Gray.)
November 5, 1831: Turner is tried for insurrection, found guilty and sentenced to death. (The Rebellious Slave: Nat Turner in American Memory by Scott French.)
November 11, 1831: Nat Turner is hanged at noon and his body is beheaded and skinned to try to halt any idolization. (Nat Turner, Lightning Rod, by Christine Gibson in American Heritage Magazine.) Yet his story is by no means over, leaving a profound legacy that continues to this day.
Winter, 1832: Following widespread petitions after the Turner rebellion, the Virginia Legislature considers abolishing slavery. (Slavery In The United States: A Social, Political and Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Junius P. Rodriguez.) Some legislators call for full emancipation; others propose heightened restrictions and the removal of all free blacks from the state. In a close vote, the legislature decides to continue slavery until “a more definite development of public opinion.” Legislation passes that bans teaching slaves or free blacks to read, that forbids preaching by slaves and makes it illegal for slaves to attend church without their overseer or masters. (Supplement to the Revised Code of the Laws of Virginia, Richmond, 1833.)
NATE PARKER (Nat Turner/Directed By/Screenplay By/Produced By) first garnered attention for his starring role in The Weinstein Company’s and Oprah Winfrey produced, THE GREAT DEBATERS opposite director/actor Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. Washington handpicked him to play the troubled yet brilliant “Henry Lowe,” who overcomes his selfish ways and becomes the team’s leader. Parker would later receive an honorary Doctorate from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas—the actual school upon which the film was based.
Parker’s most recent efforts have gone into the launch of the NATE PARKER FOUNDATION (NPF) a public organization designed to provide monetary and technical support to a significant number of community based organizations that are dedicated to transforming the lives of people of African descent both domestically and abroad.
Nate Parker has dedicated his career and life to using his platform as an artist and activist to inspire a protest in the face of community and global injustices.
ARMIE HAMMER (Samuel Turner) will next be seen later this year, in Tom Ford’s film NOCTURNAL ANIMALS alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon. Focus Features will exclusively release the film on November 18, 2016.
In 2017, Hammer will appear in Ben Wheatley’s film FREE FIRE as ‘Ord.’ The film is set in Boston in 1978 and focuses on the shootout and game of survival between two gangs. The cast also includes Cillian Murphy and Brie Larson.
Hammer recently wrapped production on Stanley Tucci’s film FINAL PORTRAIT. He will star as the role of an American art critic ‘James Lord’ alongside Geoffrey Rush. The script is based on Lord’s own work A Giacometti Portrait. He also recently wrapped production on Luca Guadagnino’s film CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and will soon begin production on Anthony Maras’ HOTEL MUMBAI alongside Dev Patel.
In 2015, Hammer starred with Henry Cavill in the spy thriller THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., playing Russian spy Illya Kuryakin and American agent Napoleon Solo, respectively.
In 2013, Hammer starred as the title character in THE LONE RANGER, alongside Johnny Depp, directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
Hammer earned a 2012 SAG Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Clyde Tolson in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar Hoover biopic J. EDGAR, with a script by Dustin Lance Black. Hammer starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.
His performance as the Winklevoss twins in the award-winning film THE SOCIAL NETWORK garnered him critical praise and positioned him as one of Hollywood’s breakouts of 2010. Hammer was nominated Most Promising Performer by the Chicago Film Critics Association, and awarded Best Supporting Actor by the Toronto Film Critics Association. The film received a SAG nomination for Best Ensemble, as well as a Best Picture Golden Globe. It was also recognized by both Los Angeles and New York Film Critics, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and named one of the AFI’s Top 10 Films of the Year.
MARK BOONE JR. (Reverend Walthall). has had a successful acting career spanning three decades, appearing in a plethora of films across all genres.
Boone is well-known from his starring role as Robert ‘Bobby’ Munson on the hit FX series, “Sons of Anarchy.” He was also seen in the film LIFE OF CRIME with Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins and Isla Fisher, based on an Elmore Leonard novel. Boone has appeared in blockbuster hits such as BATMAN BEGINS opposite Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, and Gary Oldman, directed by Christopher Nolan. Nolan also directed Boone in the Sundance hit indie MEMENTO, where Boone played the motel clerk opposite Guy Pierce. MEMENTO, one of the early films from Summit Entertainment, went on to be nominated for two Oscars® and won four Independent Spirit Awards. He also appeared in ARMAGEDDON, written by J.J. Abrams and directed by Michael Bay; 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS; THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER starring John Travolta and Madeline Stowe for director Simon West; and DIE HARD II starring Bruce Willis, directed by Renny Harlin and produced by Joel Silver.
His additional film credits include GET CARTER, THE THIN RED LINE, THE GAME, SEVEN with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, OF MICE AND MEN with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise and the indie TREES LOUNGE that he starred opposite his long time writing partner and friend Steve Buscemi. He had one of the leads in the hit horror thriller, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House opposite Josh Harnett, Melissa George and Ben Foster, and also the Sundance hit independent feature FROZEN RIVER opposite Melissa Leo released by Sony Classics that was nominated for two Oscars. Boone had a starring role in the independent film PETE SMALL IS DEAD opposite Peter Dinklage, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi. In 2012, he appeared in indie films MISSING PIECES, LOOK AT ME, and LOST ANGELES.
In addition to his numerous film credits, Boone has also starred in a myriad of television roles in hit shows such as “Law & Order,” “Seinfeld,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Carnivale.”
Boone will be seen in Netflix’s series “Flaked” starring Will Arnett and “Casual Encounters.”
Boone has an avid writing and production career including an Executive Producing credit on the feature SPUN starring the late Brittany Murphy. Boone haunted his musical talents with his cover of “Bang, Bang” which is based on the West Coast, and he can frequently be seen riding one of his two Harley-Davidsons around town.
Boone was last seen starring in the highly touted independent film HELICOPTER MOM with Nia Vardalos.
COLMAN DOMINGO (Hark) is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director who is a triple threat in 2016 with TV, film, and theater anticipated projects.
Domingo reprised his role as Victor Strand on season 2 of AMC’s hit show, FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, which premiered in April 2016. Details of the mysterious Strand were revealed in this season’s most anticipated storyline. DEN OF GEEK wrote, “A lot of Strand’s appeal stems from Colman Domingo himself. He’s a compelling actor with an incredible screen presence.” Season 2 will return on August 21, 2016.
As an Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, and Drama League Award nominated and OBIE, Audelco and Lucille Lortel Award winner Domingo has solidified himself as a Broadway veteran.
Domingo is currently directing the West Coast production of BARBECUE, written by Obie and Helen Hayes Award winner Robert O’Hara. The play will begin previews at the Geffen Playhouse on September 6 and will run through October 16. Domingo recently staged the Off Broadway Alliance Award-winning production of A BAND OF ANGELS and helmed August Wilson’s SEVEN GUITARS for the Actors Theater of Louisville in the fall of 2015. He also directed the critically-acclaimed Off Broadway productions of EXIT CUCKOO and SINGLE BLACK FEMALE.
Domingo’s most recent playwriting endeavor, DOT premiered at the Humana Festival in Louisville last year and earlier this year was off Broadway at the Vineyard Theater and directed by Tony Award winner Susan Stroman.
Domingo’s theater career took off when he starred in the critically-acclaimed rock musical PASSING STRANGE. The Off-Broadway ensemble cast received an OBIE Award in 2008, and Domingo reprised his roles in the film version of PASSING STRANGE, directed by Spike Lee, in 2009. He made his British and Australian debuts with his self-penned solo play, A BOY AND HIS SOUL. This production originated at New York City’s Vineyard Theater and won him GLAAD and Lucille Lortel awards in 2010.
In 2010, Domingo starred as Billy Flynn in CHICAGO, the longest revival on Broadway, and in the award-winning THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, a role which he originated on and off Broadway. Domingo was nominated for a Tony Award, Olivier Award, and a Fred Astaire Award for his role in THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS. Additional theater credits include the off Broadway revival of BLOOD KNOT and the self-penned WILD WITH HAPPY.
Additional film credits include Ava DuVernay’s SELMA and Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, Lee Daniels’ THE BUTLER, Joe Roth’s FREEDOMLAND and Clint Eastwood’s TRUE CRIME, Spike Lee’s MIRACLE AT ST. ANA and RED HOOK SUMMER, and the first ever screen adaptation of a Ralph Ellison story, KING OF THE BINGO GAME, among others. His TV credits include: THE KNICK, LUCIFER, HORACE AND PETE, LAW & ORDER, LAW & ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT and NASH BRIDGES.
Domingo is on the Board of the Directors of the Vineyard Theater in New York City. He is also on faculty at The National Theater Institute (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center) and guest-lectured and mentored in many colleges and universities around the country. Domingo has directed for Berkeley Rep, Actors Theater of Louisville and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab among others.
As one of the most esteemed actors of her generation, AUNJANUE ELLIS (Nancy) appears in two of the fall’s most intriguing projects and also stars as Miranda Shaw, the highest-ranking woman at the FBI on the hit drama “Quantico,” which returns to ABC on September 27.
This summer, Ellis completed work on Christine Crokos’ independent drama PIMP, a look at life for women on the streets of New York amidst the hustles and dangers facing those working in the illegal sex trade. Koke Palmer and Haley Ramm round out the cast.
For television, Ellis most recently starred in BET’s epic series “The Book of Negroes,” for which she received a Television Critics’ Choice Award nomination for Best Actress in a Movie or Limited Series.
Ellis’s film credits include Tate Taylor’s THE HELP, in which she played Yule Mae Davis, the maid arrested for allegedly stealing a ring. In Taylor’s James Brown biopic GET ON UP, Ellis portrayed Vicki Anderson, acknowledged by Brown in his autobiography as probably the best singer he ever heard. Ellis also starred opposite Denzel Washington in THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 as well as THE CAVEMAN’S VALENTINE. She shared a SAG Award nomination for her role as Mary Ann Fisher in RAY and received a NAACP Image Award nomination for her performance as a medical student in George Tillman Jr.’s MEN OF HONOR, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Robert DeNiro.
Ellis also appeared in ROMEO AND JULIET IN HARLEM (which she also executive produced), ED’S NEXT MOVE, THE EXPRESS, FREEDOMLAND, THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, LOVELY & AMAZING, A MAP OF THE WORLD, MONEY MATTERS, NOTORIOUS, THE VOLUNTEER AND UNA VIDA: A FABLE OF MUSIC AND THE MIND. She made her motion picture debut in Jim McKay’s Sundance Film Festival hit GIRLS TOWN, opposite Lili Taylor.
For television, Ellis starred in the series “Abducted: The Carlina White Story,” and garnered a second NAACP Image Award nomination for her portrayal of Candy Carson alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. and Kimberly Elise in the made for television film “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story.” Ellis appeared as a series regular on “The Mentalist,” “High Incident,” “E-Ring” and “Justice.” Her television credits also include arcs on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “True Blood” and “The Practice,” and guest starring roles on “The Good Wife,” “Sleepy Hollow,” and “Blue Bloods.” She first appeared on television in an episode of Dick Wolf’s police drama series “New York Undercover.”
In 1995, Ellis made her professional acting debut as Ariel opposite Patrick Stewart’s Prospero in The Tempest, directed by George C. Wolfe in a New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre production that began its run at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre and later transferred to The Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway. Her stage credits also include the Broadway production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, directed by Bartlett Sher, A Winter’s Tale for the NYSF/Public Theatre, and at MTC, Drowning Crow and Seeking the Genesis.
Though she was born in San Francisco, Ellis claims the small Mississippi town of McComb as her home. There, Ellis’ grandmother raised her on a farm that has been in the family for generations. Brought up in a Baptist church where she performed recitations and skits, it was not until she was a student at Tougaloo College that Ellis would first find herself on stage. It was her discovery of theater that led her to transfer to Brown University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in African American Studies, while also training as an actor under Jim Barnhill and John Emigh. She went onto receive a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Ellis is a member of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., a service sorority that honored her with the 2010 Rising Star Award.
DWIGHT HENRY (Isaac Turner) is an American actor, baker and businessman. He has received four awards for his performance on BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD for Best Supporting Actor: a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, a Bombay International Film Festival Award, a CinaEphoria Award, and a Utah Film Critics Association Award. In addition to these awards, Henry received 12 nominations. After his performance on BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, he then filmed 12 YEARS A SLAVE and SEXUAL HEALING. He made his film debut with an instant hit, and he rapidly began to launch his career in acting. He has made appearances on “Tavis Smiley” in (2012) and (2013), “44th NAACP Awards” (2013), “CBS Sunday Morning News” (2013), “Super Soul Sunday with Oprah Winfrey” (2013), “The Jeff Probst Show” (2012), and “Made in Hollywood” (2012).
Henry has been a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana since he was one year old. Any given day in New Orleans, you can find him at one of his bakeries cooking up a storm. Henry owns Wink’s World Famous Buttermilk Drop Café Franchise, which has locations in New Orleans as well as New York and plans to go world-wide. He is currently working on a cookbook and plans to release it in 2017. He recently has opened another Franchise Mr. Henry’s Original Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Café, opening in February 2016. He plans to further his craft in acting and continue in intensive acting training.
He was born to Dr. Victor A. Henry M.D. and Edna l. Henry, both former residents of Nashville, Tennessee. They moved to New Orleans shortly after Dwight’s birth. Henry was a normal all-American kid who played many sports and loved being outside. In his teenage years, he was known for his skills in basketball and dancing. He joined the New Generation Bapt