This week my day was made when news flooded the internet about Nate Parker’s debut feature The Birth of a Nation. Not only did it receive an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response at the Sundance premiere screening, but it sold to the tune of $17.5 million to Fox Searchlight. Actually my week, my month, my year and my whole life was made. Why? To me it represents a dynamic shift in the paradigm as we know it. The kind of shift that can’t simply be handed over…it has to be taken, has to be hard-fought and won. Just as Nat Turner rebelled against the status quo in the time of slavery, Nate Parker fought for seven years to bring to light a story that has the power to provoke real change. We have yet to see the full impact that this film will make, but it’s beginning its journey into the wider world already, making history with the highest recorded sale at Sundance to date. This alone is a sign that this film will leave its mark for generations to come.

In light of all of the recent debates about diversity in entertainment and the need for change, the timing of this film is divinely perfect. In fact, The Birth of a Nation, one hundred years after the D.W. Griffith version, seems to answer the call for more diversity and inclusion with its own sort of coup. It’s a film that demands that we all pay attention and immerse ourselves in a painful part of history that America must deal with head on and heal fully and completely from in order to truly chart a new course where all lives and all stories truly matter.

Upon hearing the news about Parker’s film, I was transported back to my college days when I was immersed in studies of the black arts movement and the history of African Americans in film, starting from D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation to the present. The original version of The Birth of a Nation, always deeply disturbed me and served as a stark reference point for Hollywood. It’s clear that the original film laid the foundation for the distortion and revision of history, the use of cinema as propaganda and the deeply pervasive stereotypes of people of color in American cinema. For Parker’s film to reclaim that title and simultaneously tell the story of Nat Turner is an act of revolution in itself.

When I soberly decided to become a performer even with a clear understanding of the foundation of cinema in America, it was precisely because I saw the power that films — and art in general — had to serve as a catalyst for change. Because of this, my focus has always been on what is possible and on the countless stories from the African Diaspora and beyond that have yet to be told. This week is special to me personally, because in addition to the news about The Birth of a Nation, a dream I have always had has come to fruition. I am producing and starring in Rise of the Orisha, a film that re-presents ancient African deities as superheroes.The film is about Adesuwa, a shy barmaid struggling to survive in the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro who has her world tossed upside down when she discovers she is the reincarnated fiery goddess of storms called Oya.

I’ve always had the dream of playing a superhero but what makes the forthcoming film written and directed by Nosa Igbinedion all the more powerful is that he has created a superhero story rooted in African mythology. This is what I am here for, what I yearn for. To have the opportunity to play the villain, the hero, the lover, the victim, the aggressor, or the friend. And to tell stories rooted in cultural specificity. As a Nigerian American, a black woman or just a woman, I do often feel the weight of being put into various boxes that render the human experience vague instead of as complex as it truly is.

In order for us as a nation to collectively continue to press forward and move past the “boxes” or the stereotypical representations, the racist logic and imagery as represented by Griffith’s 1915 film (which serves as the foundation for American filmmaking) must indeed be addressed and dismantled. Among these ruins, we can then build an entertainment industry that is inclusive and truly representative of the diversity and dignity of all people regardless of race or creed. What The Birth of a Nation means to me is the opportunity for a very powerful new beginning. Its director and star, Nate Parker, leads by example to drive home the point that we can all become our own heroines, heroes or “change agents” if we take individual and collective action on the injustices that weigh on our hearts.

Esosa E. is an award-winning producer, writer, actress, health expert and fashion designer living between Capetown, South Africa and Los Angeles. Currently, she plays the role of Ngozi on the hit Ghanaian web and television series An African City, which is now in its second season. She is currently attached to star in a number of different film and television projects with acclaimed filmmakers based internationally and in the U.S. Esosa is the creator of the blog Raw Girl in a Toxic World, where her writings about a range of holistic health topics and books have been published online. For more information visit: www.esosae.com. Follow Esosa on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Esosa E.

Writing since January 2016 · 1 story contributed