So this week has brought us St. Patrick's Day, the first day of spring, and a Modlin Center performance I've been looking forward to since I first heard about it - DJ Spooky's "Rebirth of a Nation".
I admit that I knew very little about DW Griffith's 1915 film "Birth of a Nation" before attending the performance. All I really knew was that a) it's studied quite a bit in film classes, and b) it's extremely racist. What I did know about "Rebirth" was that DJ Spooky would be in some way remixing the movie and using his own music.
As soon as the show was due to start, I took a seat in the rear of the balcony. For anyone who doubts that balcony seating could possibly be as good as orchestra, I would invite you to give it a try in Jepson Theatre - in my mind, it's the best place to sit, as you really get a fantastic view of what's going on. Anyway, I wanted to see this performance as a patron (job perk!), so I settled in to my seat and absorbed the scene.
The stage looked amazing - there was one large hanging screen surrounded by two smaller hanging screens, and there was a DJ console on the stage.
From the beginning, I was pulled into the show as a full experience. DJ Spooky's mixing of the movie is the main focus, but for me, the music (composed by DJ Spooky and recorded by the Kronos Quartet) was just as integral.
At first, I wasn't sure where to look - the side screens or the center screen? - and I thought I'd miss something. But as I settled back and let myself take in everything that was happening on stage, my eyes shifted back and forth easily. "Rebirth" begins with a montage of contemporary footage that challenges the audience to wonder how far we've truly come. It was interesting to see it in this order (rather than having the new footage at the end), because it gave me a backwards historical context, if that makes any sense. This helped to set the stage - no pun intended. (You can see this opening montage in the "Rebirth" trailer here)
Some aspects of the original film were still confusing to me, plot-wise, but I think that's what happens when a 3-hour film is mercifully edited down to a little over an hour). The extra commentary that DJ Spooky provides - through silent film word screens paired with Griffith's originals - made it clearer to me.
My greater struggle was to understand the sheer amount of propaganda in the original movie. Griffith's film explained that the Ku Klux Klan was formed out of necessity to keep the newly freed black people from taking over the genteel white South, still hurting from the Civil War. I know that I stared and shook my head in disbelief more than once during the movie.
The "Rebirth" score added even more tension to this as it was often chaotic, dissonant, and even disjointed at times. The "Rebirth" editing made subtle statements - the one that stuck in my mind was when Northerner Elsie Stoneman was "saved" from marrying a mulatto man (with whom she was allied) by a Klansman. As Elsie turns her head to see her protector, he removes his hood, and the frame highlights (with circles, I think) a freeze frame of their faces - she with silent film star adoring eyes, he with undisguised pride. I remember shaking my head, and I think I may have said aloud, "Oh my God." I don't think I was the only one.
While DJ Spooky's message was subtler than I initially expected, the performance was still moving, challenging, and disturbing. I think it's ultimately hopeful, though, because to me it shows just one more way that art is a powerful medium to share ideas, begin discussions, and find solutions to problems of all scopes.
(The photo above is from the Q&A session conducted by DJ Spooky after the performance. I didn't stay for that part - it was back to work for me - but I heard from many people that they learned a lot!)
1 comments:
It's important to remember not only that the movie was made 94 years ago when "lost cause" thinking was widespread (Griffith was born ten years after the Civil War, son of a Confederate officer and heard one side as he was growing up from father and father's comrades)but also that the silent star who played Elsie was Lillian Gish, in my opinion the finest actress of the century and who made movies from 1912 - 1987. Her character didn't want to marry the man and was rescued by her lover (important point, I think). I've never seen a print cut to the extent you say this was, so it possibly made the movie more offensive than it might otherwise be. However, some scenes bothered me the first time I saw it as a kid and they still do. It was a big factor in the rise of the NAACP (even Booker T. Washington felt led to protest). This is an example of a work which must be seen in its entirety and should be viewed with its era in mind. Griffith was the single most important person in movie history and he deserves to be understood as some would say certain counterculture rockers, rap stars or preachers should be - understand the source and you might have more appreciation for the work. Another Griffith/Gish movie you might watch, if you haven't, is Broken Blossoms, made a few years later - it might change some of your feelings.
Tim
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