Ever since causing a sensation at an Eccles screening since entered in Sundance lore, last winter Nate Parker’s, The Birth of a Nation has been one of the most buzzed-about films of the year. The story of Nat Turner’s historic slave uprising of 1831, with its title polemically echoing D.W. Griffith’s flawed masterpiece, is a powerful telling of a history long ignored. In the past weeks Parker has been enveloped in a controversy of his own, but the film is still a sure bet to figure prominently in awards season. The HFPA spoke to Parker in Toronto. “This story spoke to me for so many reasons, the first being really about my identity as an American, there’s so much energy that goes into being a patriot and loving their country, but there is so little that goes into really presenting a narrative that is complete. (…) But because of that incomplete picture, I kind of, the things that I toiled with, with respect to just being a black man and in being poor and not understanding the dynamic of America, when I learned about Nat Turner, it made me feel a bit more whole. (…) When we talk about important stories, which I do believe that this story is important, I don’t think it’s important just for black people, I think it’s important for all of us. Anyone that has even seen injustice and can look at a record or look in any book that says this person fought for some type of freedom that I can enjoy.  Right now, I think it’s something necessary and worthy of our attention. Communities.”