#PraiseIndyNews: Ground Breaking Film On Nat Turner Slave Revolt Wins Big At Sundance, Makes History [Video]

This is a film you’re sure to hear more about. It’s called, “The Birth of a Nation” and it’s the big winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The Nat Turner slave rebellion drama swept the Grand Jury and Audience Award honors Saturday in Utah. It’s the fourth straight year that a film has swept the marquee awards at Sundance. The man at the center of the project is actor and now film maker, Nate Parker–the brother you know from his film roles in “Beyond the Lights”, “The Great Debaters” and “Red Tails”. Parker directed this film and his moment in the sun at Sundance was also a historic one for his passion and efforts. Parker landed the biggest Sundance film deal in history for “The Birth of a Nation”. He sold the world-wide right to Fox Searchlight in a deal, according to Deadline, for a record-breaking $17.5 million. Oscar buzz for next year is already beginning for this film. (Fox Searchlight was also the machine behind the film “12 Years A Slave” and guided it to a Best Motion Picture Award at the Academy Awards in 2014. But observers want to know if this celebrated new film and its director/star will get caught in #OscarsSoWhite controversy when it will be eligible to be recognized in 2017. Others in the cast are Gabrielle Union (“Being Mary Jane”, and the “Think Like A Man” films), Penelope Ann Miller (“American Crime” and “The Artist”), Aja Naomi King (Michaela on “How To Get Away With Murder”) and Aunjanue Ellis (“The Book of Negroes”, “Ray” and “Undercover Brother”). The awards ceremonies closed out the ten-day Sundance Film Festival, held yearly in Park City, Utah.

Learn more about The film “The Birth of a Nation” and film maker Nate Parker in the video below: 

It is Black History Month, do you and your children know who Nat Turner was? Learn about him, and one of the largest slave rebellions in the United State that he led, HERE.