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D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915)
1. What are the contrasting ways in which Griffith presents his primary white characters and peripheral black figures in the opening sequences to establish his version of pre-war South and its race relations?
2. Where do you see him using familiar Black stereotypes of the mammy, scheming Mulatto (mixed race), loyal Uncle Tom, sexually threatening Buck?
(below question are about how Griffith generates narrative suspense, momentum and climax to generate viewer’s support for his ‘single story’ about the Civil War and the Reconstruction era.)
3. What parallel lines of action does he build and alternate between in the climax of his film?
4. How does he try to generate audience sympathy for the actions of Ben Cameron and the formation of the clan?
5. Does he present his creation as a creative work or historical truth? Where does he make his claim to be so?
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