It’s been three years since Nate Parker burned through his Hollywood goodwill, but now the director is back in competition at the Venice Film Festival with “American Skin,” a blend of fictional storytelling and documentary filmmaking that seeks to explore the notion of police brutality. With Spike Lee serving as Parker’s advocate, Venice seemed to be the site that Parker had targeted for his career rebirth. If he comments to the Venice crowd, as reported by Variety, are any indication, he may still have a way to go.
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A quick refresher: in 2016, Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation“ set records at the Sundance Film Festival when it was purchased by Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million. In the publicity blitz that followed, it was revealed that Parker has been accused—and eventually acquitted—of rape charges while still a college student. This, of course, took place a year before Ashley Judd‘s allegations against Harvey Weinstein would start a cleansing fire in Hollywood, and Parker immediately went on the defensive, telling Deadline that he would “not relive that period of his life” as a consequence of his success, and openly avoiding questions asked by journalists. The allegations and Parker’s heated response towards the public response ultimately doomed “The Birth of a Nation,” which grossed less than $16 million at the domestic box office.
In his comments to the Venice Film Festival crowd, Parker struck a more conciliatory tone. “Three years ago I was pretty tone-deaf to the realities of certain situations that were happening in the climate,” he said. “And I’ve had a lot of time to think about that, and I’ve learned a lot from it. And being tone-deaf, there were a lot of people that were hurt in my response, in the way I approached things. I apologize to those people.” Parker would continue to chart his own personal growth behind the scenes. “I’ve learned, I’m continuing to learn. I’m 39 years old now. Hopefully, I have a long way to go. The hope is that I can continue taking the wisdom from people who care enough…and help me to be introspective about where I am and what I’ve been through.”
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Whether Parker’s apology is enough to make amends with victims of sexual violence is not my determination to make, but it does strike me that Parker’s choice of words—an attempt to anchor his past behavior as an act of immaturity—may not sit particularly well with many. Perhaps even more damning are the words of his financier, Tarak Ben Ammar, who offered words of “support” (if one could call it that) by mentioning him in the same sentence as one of the most notorious abusers in Hollywood history. “I called his agent right away to meet him,” Ben Ammar said. “I told him that I’ve worked with Roman Polanski, Claude Chabrol, and Jean-Jacques Annaud and that he was an auteur like them.” Not exactly the kind of comparisons you want to be made in this context.
Click here to read more of our coverage from the 2019 edition of the Venice Film Festival.