Film

The Birth of a Nation

Release year

1915

Synopsis

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

Directed by

D.W. Griffith

Cast

John Ford
Raoul Walsh
Josephine Crowell
D.W. Griffith
Lillian Gish
Monte Blue

Poster artist

Einar Nerman