The Birth of a nation

This 1915 epic American Civil War drama, using the interwoven stories of two families - one Southern and one Northern - is one of the most influential films in the history of cinema and, because of its racism, one of the most controversial. Based on the Rev. Thomas Dixon’s deliriously racist “The Clansman”, a melodramatic novel about the American Civil War and its aftermath Griffith’s film is remarkable, for its technical innovations and for the truly epic feel created by the carefully orchestrated, swirling masses of figures in the battle scenes.

Credits

production company

Epoch Productions

producer/director

D.W. Griffith

Duration

02:30:00:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1915

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

016959

Language

English

Subject categories

Armed Forces, Military, War & Weapons → United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865

Feature films

Feature films → Feature films - United States

History → History

History → United States - History

History → United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865

Silent films

Sound/audio

Silent

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/78358--the-birth-of-a-nation/ |title=The Birth of a nation |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=19 October 2021 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United States, 1915