Nate Parker's ‘AmericanSkin' Premieres to Negative Reviews at Venice; Writer-Director Apologizes for ‘Being Tone-Deaf'

It’s been three years since Nate Parker was “cancelled” by the industry at large for a past 1999 rape allegation. However, the director is back in competition at the Venice Film Festival with “AmericanSkin.” Spike Lee was in attendance at the screening, supporting Parker and telling the audience that we need to “move forward.” A Venice career comeback seemed to be in-the-works for Parker, but it does seem like there is a lot of work to be done before the actor-director can probably rehabilitate his career.  

If you remember, in 2016, Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” was the toast of the town at the Sundance Film Festival when it was purchased by Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million. However, slowly creeping back in the spotlight were past rape accusations thrown against Parker, more than two decades earlier. It was revealed that Parker has been accused—and eventually acquitted—of rape charges while still a college student. Parker would eventually try to defend himself, telling Deadline that he would “not relive that period of his life” as a consequence of his success, and openly avoided questions asked by journalists at an infamous TIFF press conference that I had covered for The Playlist. “The Birth of a Nation” was ultimately doomed, its glowing reviews replaced with mixed ones and Oscar chances all but completely annexed.

Parker did apologize about how he went about it back in 2016: “Three years ago I was pretty tone-deaf to the realities of certain situations that were happening in the climate,” he said. “And I’ve had a lot of time to think about that, and I’ve learned a lot from it. And being tone-deaf, there were a lot of people that were hurt in my response, in the way I approached things. I apologize to those people.” Parker would continue to chart his own personal growth behind the scenes. “I’ve learned, I’m continuing to learn. I’m 39 years old now. Hopefully, I have a long way to go. The hope is that I can continue taking the wisdom from people who care enough…and help me to be introspective about where I am and what I’ve been through.”

What ”AmericanSkin” needed most to survive were positive notices from the American press. And yet, the reviews out of Venice for “AmericanSkin” are not good. The comeback Parker wanted to mount will probably have to wait, as even the film’s U.S. theatrical release is no doubt in question. Will we have to wait years, if ever, before we actually can catch “AmericanSkin”?