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Ebony Magazine And Apple Celebrate Black Hollywood

It seems Reverend Al Sharpton’s sketchy endorsement didn’t do much for filmmaker Nate Parker.

The American Film Institute is reportedly postponing a scheduled screening of Parker’s directorial debut feature film The Birth of a Nation, along with the Q&A that would have come with it.

Entertainment Weekly reports:

The American Film Institute is postponing a planned screening of The Birth of a Nation and Q&A with the film’s writer-director-star Nate Parker, in the wake of renewed attention on a 17-year-old rape case against the filmmaker. The event had been set to take place at the Los Angeles-based film school on Friday.”

American Film Institute Dean Jan Schuette said on Tuesday:

“I have been the recipient of many different passionate points of view about the screening, and I believe it is essential that we discuss these issues together — messenger and message, gender, race and more — before we see the film… Next week, we will be scheduling a special moderated discussion so we may explore these issues together as artists and audience.”

Nate Parker and The Birth of a Nation co-writer Jean Celestine have been under high media scrutiny following their success at the Sundance Film Festival this year. The ugliness behind their 1999 rape trial resurfaced, as did news that their accuser committed suicide in 2012.

Now it looks as though Parker’s important film is not immune to the controversy.

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Nate Parker’s Past Causes Another Setback For ‘Birth Of A Nation’  was originally published on globalgrind.com