Director passes up chance to respond to rape allegations.
Nate Parker passed up a golden opportunity Sunday to engage in one of the “honest conversations” he says we all need to have about past wrongs of every kind.
At a Toronto press conference promoting his slave rebellion movie The Birth of a Nation, which has been screening to raves at TIFF just as it did at its Sundance premiere, the writer/director and actor waffled and rambled like the most slippery of politicians, not the righteous filmmaker he claims to be.
His stated intent to “heal” past wounds through frank discussion rings hollow in the circumstances and likely has torpedoed any renewed Oscar hopes TIFF might have brought his film.
Parker did a lot of talking at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel press conference, praising the seven cast members seated alongside him, who all returned the love.
He did everything but directly answer questions relating to his 1999 charge of raping an unconscious fellow student at Penn State University, along with his roommate Jean Celestin, who later co-wrote The Birth of a Nation.
Parker was acquitted at trial but Celestin was found guilty, although the verdict was subsequently overturned on appeal. The two men went about their lives, but the family of the 19-year-old accuser in the case said she never fully recovered from it and committed suicide in 2012.
It’s understandable that Parker would want to change the channel away from the events of 17 years ago. The rape charge, which came to wide public attention just last month, threatens to overturn a carefully orchestrated bid to make The Birth of a Nation not only a box-office success on its Oct. 7 wide release, but also a major contender at the next Academy Awards.
What isn’t understandable is how Parker continues to refuse to take ownership of the issue and to make any kind of demonstrably sincere response to it, apart from the “profound sadness” he expressed in a U.S. interview in August when he learned of his accuser’s death by her own hand.
At the Sunday press conference, a New York Times journalist asked Parker if he was willing to make any kind of apology to the family of his late accuser. Parker’s response was the classic political stonewall manoeuvre: He said he wanted to respect his cast and TIFF by only talking about by his film. “I definitely don’t want to hijack this with my personal life.”
I asked Parker if he still planned to take The Birth of a Nation on a tour of U.S. campuses this fall and whether he might use the tour to also address not just America’s slavery shame but also sexual assault, an idea first proposed by Amy Ziering, the Oscar-nominated producer of The Hunting Ground, a doc about sexual assault in schools.
He confirmed he still plans to tour but ducked the question about including a sexual assault aspect to it.
Instead he rambled at length about how “we’ve all been traumatized” by past injustices, suggesting that campus rape might be just one of many social ills that could be addressed on his journey of healing.
“Healing comes with honest conversation about our past. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere,” Parker said.
“We want to deal with injustice everywhere, wherever it stands. You got injustice? This is your movie.”
You’ve got to wonder if Nat Turner, the real historical figure and antislavery champion Parker plays in The Birth of a Nation, would countenance such a steadfast refusal to do the right thing.
I’ve now seen The Birth of a Nation three times — it’s a very good film — and each time I’ve been more impressed by Turner’s transformation, after witnessing the brutality against his fellow slaves, from a meek field hand into a valiant leader of oppressed people seeking liberty at any cost.
Parker could benefit from the brave example of the character he plays on screen. So far, he’s been ignoring it by selectively choosing the past wrongs he’s willing to candidly address. Peter Howell is the Star’s movie critic.