You are watching a special edition of American History tvs reel america. You are watching the birth of a nation. Coming up, a chance for you to watch the conclusion of the silent film. But first, some background for the library of congress. My name is mike, im head of the moving image section here at the library of congress. The home of the largest collection of video and film in the world. We are at culpepper virginia facility that opened in the summer of 2007. Dedicated to preserving our heritage, not only the collections of the library, but we also have reservation laboratories that are dedicated to making sure that all of this material is available for future generations. We have in the collection the original camera negative for birth of a nation. This is in 1915 this is the apex of everything that Delia Griffith has learned about d. W. Griffith has learned about filmmaking. Its full of amazing storytelling technique, terrific acting, beautiful editing. It is truly one of the most important films in the history of the evolution of narrative cinema. Unfortunately, its also one of the vilest racial tracts in the history of american cinema. Griffith was an unreconstructed racist, who had, to be kind, paternalistic attitude towards africanamericans. Birth of a nation, is the story of civil war and reconstruction, based on a novel by a man named thomas dixon called the klansmen. It tells the story of families were torn asunder by the civil war and the portrayal of southerners in the film is very sympathetic, including the fact that the rescue at the end of the film was effected by the ku klux klan. This is a film that is very difficult to watch out of context. People who see it today, people who come to it fresh without knowing the background, without knowing the era, find it a very difficult film to deal with. But its part of our job to provide the context for the film. Im not excusing the inherent and grotesque racism of the film. I can look at it as a social historian you can look at it one way. Its very much a piece of its time. As a cinema historian, you can still admire the technique that d. W. Griffith brought to this film. As the film, is astonishing, as a cultural document, it still astonishing, just in a different way. Now, here is the conclusion of the film the birth of a nation, which premiered in 1915 100