From the Editor: Why We Won’t Be Reviewing ‘The Birth Of a Nation’ Upon Its Release

***Trigger Warning For Sexual Assault*** There was a point a few years ago where I wanted to be done with period films and TV shows. Either they had so few Black people in them, it was as if we were to believe they hadn’t been invented until the early 70s. Or, the opposite, the show was about Black people and was supposed to show the unflinching horror and somehow by movie’s end, the triumph of Black people in the face of evil incarnate. I didn’t drift from these movies because of what they showed, but mostly for what I felt the bundle of them implied: here’s some racism from fifty years ago or one hundred and fifty years ago because we don’t dare show you the racism that happened this morning. While not exclusive to slavery movies, slavery movies do indeed make up a large share of those productions. I can understand the person fatigued on that setting. It’s like getting a shot at your doctor appointment. Maybe it wasn’t a big shot that leaves your arm sore for a week, but they still shoved a sharp metal syringe into your shoulder. Likewise, even a really good slavery movie is still, a slavery movie and I can empathize with not wanting to always indulge that. [quote_left]This was my most anticipated movie release of this year, but probably beyond that as well.[/quote_left]A Birth of a Nation was supposed to be (and ultimately, probably will be) different. This isn’t the story of a slave overcoming horrors and indignities, being separated from their family, educating themselve…