Today, PBS unveiled a strong and quite robust winter/spring 2017 season lineup that includes a lot of original programming that you will be interested in (based on my initial skim of the schedule which I received this morning), including an INDEPENDENT LENS documentary titled “Birth of a Movement,” from producer-directors Susan Gray and Bestor Cram.

An investigation into how D.W. Griffith’s incendiary 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation” unleashed a battle still being waged today over race relations and representation, and the power and influence of Hollywood movie/tv-making. In brief, the documentary will follow African American newspaper editor and activist William M. Trotter who, after “Birth of a Nation’s” release, waged a battle against Griffith’s notoriously Ku Klux Klan-friendly blockbuster movie, launching what would become a nationwide movement that sought to denounce the work.




“Birth of a Movement” features the contributions of familiar names like Spike Lee, Reginald Hudlin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and DJ Spooky (who created a new score and remix of the original Griffith film), as well as numerous clips from the technically groundbreaking but deeply racially problematic epic. The documentary promises to be a revelation for cinephiles, history buffs, and anyone interested in America’s tumultuous racial evolution.

PBS has set a Monday, February 6, 10 p.m. ET premiere slot for “Birth of a Movement.”

No trailer yet.