Principal cast
Lillian Gish as Stoneman's Daughter Elsie, Mae Marsh as Flora Cameron, Henry B. Walthall as Col. Ben Cameron, Miriam Cooper as Margaret Cameron, and Mary Alden as Stoneman's Housekeeper Lydia
Film 44 of 244 on the Screen Path
The Birth of a Nation
The Fiery Cross of the Ku Klux Klan!
About the film
The Birth of a Nation at a glance.
Screen Path places this 1915 film at stop 44 in one curated journey through cinema. The learning experience adds context before you watch and deeper analysis after.
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.
Key craft credits
Billy Bitzer (director of photography), Joseph Carl Breil (director of photography), D.W. Griffith (editor), James Smith (editor), and Joseph Henabery (editor)
- Director
- D.W. Griffith
- Release
- 1915-03-08
- Runtime
- 193 minutes
- Genres
- Drama, History, and War
- Country
- United States
- Quiz
- 50 questions
The Screen Path journey
Before. After. Remember.
The featured film is watched outside Screen Path. The app provides the learning experience around it: a guide, an analysis, and a quiz with explanations.
01
Before you watch
Start with a spoiler-free video guide to the context and filmmaking choices worth noticing.
Spoiler-free02
After the film
Return after watching for a deeper video analysis of craft, meaning, and legacy.
Contains spoilers03
Quiz yourself
Answer 50 questions with clear rationales designed to make the ideas stick.
50 questions in this journeyWant to try a complete journey on the web? The Citizen Kane page includes the spoiler-free guide, after-film analysis, and a sample quiz.
Try Citizen Kane →Film data and images provided by TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.