The Answer

1980

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A Black screenwriter is hired to write the $50,000,000 remake of "The Birth of a Nation."A Black screenwriter is hired to write the $50,000,000 remake of "The Birth of a Nation."A Black screenwriter is hired to write the $50,000,000 remake of "The Birth of a Nation."

Director
- Spike Lee
Star
- Ernest Rayford

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

4.2/10

210

YOUR RATING

Director
- Spike Lee
Star
- Ernest Rayford

1User review

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

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Ernest Rayford

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4.2210

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Single-Black-Male

The 23 Year Old Spike Lee

In the same way that Oscar Micheaux responded to D.W. Griffith's 'The Birth of a Nation' by making films from a black perspective, Spike Lee took up the baton and responded in the same way. This film was a statement to say that he would write, direct and produce his own films just like Micheaux and Griffith respectively.

Trivia
When Spike Lee was a student at NYU Film School, he was required to watch D. W. Griffith's silent movie The Birth of a Nation for his classes. Lee was so outraged that his professors taught the movie with no mention of its racist message or its real-life role in the Klan's twentieth century rebirth that he made The Answer (1980) as a response. Many professors took great offense, and Lee was nearly expelled. He ultimately was saved by a faculty vote. After Lee's film industry success, he became a professor at NYU Film School, and Artistic Director of the Graduate Film Department.