Film Reponses: Birth of Nation, Within Our Gates, and The Learning Tree

Film Responses

Section 1: Birth of Nation, Within Our Gates, and The Learning Tree

Birth of a Nation was produced in 1915 by D.W Griffith. Drawing from the events and aftermath of the civil war, the film involves a class of two families: The Stonemans, abolitionist Northerners, and the Camerons, landowners from the South. The film depicts Southerners as the heroic underdogs of the Civil War, providing a pro-KKK interpretation of the war. Central to the film is the uprising of a slave community in the South, providing an account of rebellion against oppression and injustice. Within Our Gates was produced five years later after the Birth of a Nation. The film centers on a mixed-race school teacher, Sylvia Landry, who travels North to seek funds for her rural school in the South that focuses on poor black children—lastly, produced in 1969, The Learning Tree centers on Newt Winger, an African American teen who witnesses a murder that could change his perception of racism and prejudice.

A key trait that stands out across the three films is the idea of dignity and identity. The three films employ racial prejudice as the main theme in which people of African origin are oppressed; as enslaved people in The Birth of a Nation, a fact highlighted by the fact that White characters played the roles that were supposed to be played by African Americans (Staff, 2015); as inferior humans when it comes to education in Within Our Gates; and as a matter of life and death in The Learning Tree. In the films, identity and racial lines are at the center of controversy, causing interaction and collisions between and among characters. As a viewer, these films taught me that the contemporary issues of racial discrimination and prejudice have rooted in American history. Understanding history is necessary for addressing modern-day problems. In other words, people of the modern generation should watch such films if they genuinely want to solve the issues of racism in America.

Section 2: The Ring, Night of the Living Dead, and Mi Familia

Produced by Gregory Nava in 1995, My Family centers on a 2^nd generation Mexican immigrant telling the story of his family and life in America. Narrated across three generations, the film is about the triumph of the Mexican family having survived social and political hardships. Standout hardships include illegal deportation, racial tensions, and gang violence. In the Night of the Living Dead, produced in 1968, Director George Romero tells the story of a fallen satellite resulting in recently deceased individuals rising from their graves and sorting out living humans as food. Each person that is devoured, in turn, becomes a living dead. In The Ring (1935), a young African American male becomes a boxer in pursuit of respect from the English-speaking white folds in America. In the end, he discovers that, despite his fame across White Americans, he is still rega...