Oscar Podcast #41: Examining Nate Parker, Rape and The Hollywood Bubble

On this 41st podcast our commentary is restricted to a single issue – the explosive week information regarding Nate Parker, the writer, star and director of Fox Searchlight’s The Birth of a Nation, and the 1999 rape case he and his Birth co-writer, Jean Celestin, were involved in.

There have been think pieces upon think pieces this week that began with a very careful and concerted effort by Parker and Fox Searchlight to get ahead of the controversy by having him interview for Deadline. With that followed Fox Searchlight’s immediate statement of support for Parker but very soon after came the revelation that the acquitted Parker and convicted Celestin’s victim had committed suicide in 2012.

On the podcast we try and examine the case as honestly and as factually as possible and hopefully did so with respect and integrity. We cover the media’s response, the nature of Hollywood to turn the other cheek, our personal opinions and what it now means for the film’s financial and awards success. I encourage this to be an ongoing conversation and you can comment here on the story as well as our podcast and in the forums of AwardsWatch.

CORRECTION: In the podcast I incorrectly identify Gabrielle Union’s character as another. Her character is played by Aja Naomi King.

This podcast runs just over one hour with intro and outro.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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