Independent Lens Birth of a Movement (Season 18, Episode 7)
TV Episode | 60 min | Documentary

Independent Lens

Birth of a Movement (Season 18, Episode 7)

TV Episode | 60 min | Documentary

The story of William Monroe Trotter, the nearly forgotten editor of a Boston black newspaper who tried to ban the controversial film The Birth of a Nation.

Directors

Bestor Cram | Susan Gray

Writers

Kwyn Bader | Dick Lehr

Producers

Bestor Cram | Susan Gray | Matthew Maclean

Cinematographers

Jesse Beecher | Bestor Cram | Dan Mooney

Editor

Dan Mooney

See all filmmakers & crew (21)

Edit Released

Updated Feb 6, 2017

Release date

Feb 6, 2017 (United States)

Awards

Series awards

Won 1 Primetime Emmy Award. Another 46 wins & 74 nominations

Contacts

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Cast	+ Add Cast
19 cast members

Name	Known for
Bob Bellinger Self Self See fewer	Independent Lens (1999)
David Blight Self Self See fewer	Civil War (or, Who Do We Think We Are) (2021)
Vincent Brown Self Self See fewer	The Bigger Picture (2022)
Dolita Cathcart Self Self See fewer	Independent Lens (1999)
Jelani Cobb Self Self See fewer	Frontline (1983)
Ira Gallen Self Self See fewer	Rocky II (1979)
Henry Louis Gates Jr. Self (as Henry Louis Gates) Self (as Henry Louis Gates) See fewer	12 Years a Slave (2013)
Danny Glover Narrator Narrator See fewer	Lethal Weapon (1987)
D.W. Griffith Self (archive footage) Self (archive footage) See fewer	The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Reginald Hudlin Self Self See fewer	Marshall (2017)
Walter Huston Self (archive footage) Self (archive footage) See fewer	The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Spike Lee Self Self See fewer	Do the Right Thing (1989)
Dick Lehr Self Self See fewer	Black Mass (2015)
Charles Musser Self Self See fewer	Before the Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema of Edwin S. Porter (1982)
Sam Pollard Self (as Samuel D. Pollard) Self (as Samuel D. Pollard) See fewer	Mr. Soul! (2018)
Charlene Regester Self Self See fewer	Independent Lens (1999)
Ellen Scott Self Self See fewer	Independent Lens (1999)
DJ Spooky Self Self See fewer	Spawn (1997)
Melvyn Stokes Self Self See fewer	Independent Lens (1999)