Nate Parker’s “The Birth Of A Nation” was the winner of the top prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, the film was consequentially bought for $17.5 million at the fest and was seemingly destined for many Oscar nominations due to its urgent and relevant topics and the rising star of its writer-director Parker. But controversy arose a few months later, when a past 1999 rape allegation concerning Parker and Jean Celestin, who got a story credit in the film, during their Penn State days, re-emerged in the spotlight, followed by the news that the victim had later committed suicide. By all accounts, Parker was now officially “cancelled” by Hollywood and would likely never make another movie again.
Three years later and it seems as though Parker is hoping to mount a comeback with his upcoming film “AmericanSkin,” which has been announced today to world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will also feature an introduction and a post-screening Q&A hosted by none other than Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee. Oh, boy.
The #MeToo movement will no doubt be at the forefront of the conversation for many Americans at this year’s Venice Film Festival. We already have a new film by Roman Polanski (“An Officer and A Spy”) premiering in competition, and now Parker?
Miriam Bale, Artistic Director of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, tweeted this morning, after hearing the news of Parker’s inclusion at the fest, ”Venice really showing their ass/politics. (Unfortunately [Venice Boss] Alberto Barbera is a strident version of a quiet backlash that I see everywhere now, esp in liberal film circles.)” Whatever that means, I’m not sure, but Bale is angry. Even angrier, as usual, is Women and Hollywood Founder and Publisher Melissa Silverstein who tweeted another anger-filled tweet proclaiming “Good job Venice. A 2nd rapist added to the program. (This time out of competition) Venice Adds Nate Parker’s ‘American Skin’ to Lineup".”
When the Venice Film Festival begins on August 28th, the headline you will start to read more and more of, in American outlets especially, will be exactly what Silverstein and Bale are preaching here — that there are now as many accused rapists premiering their movies at Venice as there are female directors in competition. Now, imagine if Barbera had actually found a way to screen “Mektoub: Intermezzo — Final Cut” as he would have liked to. I’m not sure what happened with that film, maybe it will be announced later at the very last minute, but it was very much in the cards up until the lineup was announced two weeks ago.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.