By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Nate Parker & Co. Set Fellowship For Young Filmmakers

Posted Friday, August 12th, 2016 - Comments Off on Nate Parker & Co. Set Fellowship For Young Filmmakers
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Los Angeles, CA — Nate Parker and the cast, Producers, and Executive Producers of The Birth of a Nation are investing in the next generation of diverse independent creativity with the Sundance Institute | The Birth of a Nation Fellowship for 18-to-24-year-old filmmakers participating in the Institute’s Ignite program. Parker shared details at Sundance Institute’s NIGHT BEFORE NEXT benefit at The Theatre at Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles this evening, where he also received the Institute’s annual Vanguard Award presented to him by actor and Sundance alum Michael B. Jordan. Parker’s The Birth of a Nation was supported by the Institute’s renowned Feature Film Program for three years before its premiere, and won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

The Sundance Institute | The Birth of a Nation Fellowship will support a filmmaker of color each year for the next five years in the Sundance Ignite program, which was established in 2015 to provide year-round mentorship and industry experiences for talented young artists. The program aims to increase access to authentic, independent storytelling, developing a new audience base and providing a pipeline of support for emerging artists. The first Sundance Institute | The Birth of a Nation Fellow will be named in the Fall. Nate Parker and producer Jason Michael Berman were inspired by the program after meeting with the Ignite Fellows at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. There, they spoke about their film’s production process and gave each Ignite Fellow personal feedback and advice on pitching and developing film projects.

Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said “We’re deeply moved and grateful that Nate, Jason and the entire team behind The Birth of a Nation chose to commemorate their project by supporting the Institute. Their gift embodies the generosity of spirit and mentorship at the core of our initiatives. They know our programs intimately, and know exactly how this gift will enable our work in honing and amplifying the next generation of artistic talent.”

“The support I received from the Institute in developing The Birth of a Nation echoed the critical importance of mentoring independent storytellers,” said Parker. “I am honored to sow back into the Institute in alignment with their mission to support talented young artists with stories to tell.”

The Sundance Institute | The Birth of a Nation Fellowship was made possible by contributions from Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Kevin Turen, Jason Michael Berman, Aaron L. Gilbert, Preston L. Holmes, Davis S. Goyer, Michael Novogratz, Michael Finley, Tony Parker, Jason Cloth, Andy Pollack, Allan J. Stitt, Jane Oster, Barb Lee and Alston Gardner, Carl H. Lindner III, Matthew Lindner, Derrick Brooks, Jill and Ryan Ahrens, Armin Tehrany, Brenda Gilbert, Mark Moran, Henry Jackman, Steven Rosenblum, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller and Jackie Earle Haley.

Berman, a producer on The Birth of a Nation, said, “As we brought The Birth of a Nation to life with Sundance Institute and to audiences at the Festival, Nate, Kevin, Aaron, Preston and I, along with our cast and team of Executive Producers were inspired to find a way to fortify our longstanding relationship and the project’s legacy. It’s our team’s hope that this Fellowship underlines the importance of giving back, and that we inspire other successful filmmakers to contribute to the cultivation of young artists.”

Set against the antebellum South, The Birth of a Nation follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities – against himself and his fellow slaves – Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom. The film opens in theaters October 7, 2016.

Sundance Institute

Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute’s signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices, and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Sin Nombre, The Invisible War, The Square, Dirty Wars, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home. Join Sundance Institute on Facebook, Instagram,Twitter and YouTube.
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon