RESPOND IN 100 WORDS

The Birth of a Nation (1915) is still seen as a monumental film due  to its innovation of filming techniques that are still used today. For  example, one of D. W. Griffith’s key contributions was his pioneering  use of “cross-cutting” to follow parallel lines of action. An early  audience might have been confused by a film that showed first one group  of characters, then another, then the first again, But Griffith  successfully uses such a technique in a chase scene that is rarely not  use in an action movie today. Besides “cross-cutting,” There are at less  16 other ways in which Griffith was an innovator, ranging from his  night photography to his use of the iris shot and color tinting. Due to  Griffith’s efforts, this is a film of great visual beauty and narrative  power.

However, the movie is racist and unapologetic about its attitudes,  which are those of a white Southerner, raised in the 19th century,  unable to see African-Americans as fellow beings of worth and rights.