INDEPENDENT LENS: "THE BIRTH OF A MOVEMENT"
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
I teach D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Birth of a Nation silent epic in my Film History and Appreciation class at Rowan University – but I teach it as a brilliant piece of technical filmmaking that also happens to be unavoidably, inexcusably racist. Its lionization of the Ku Klux Klan led to a resurgence of that organization in the early 20th century – and this new edition of Independent Lens notes that the movie sparked the growth of another movement as well, as African-Americans rose up to protest the film’s message. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower. Check local listings.