Producer pushes through difficult ‘Birth’ of slave-uprising film

When Jason Michael Berman signed on as a producer of “The Birth of a Nation,” Nate Parker’s highly anticipated film, he knew the drama would be a tough sell to prospective financiers. The movie is based on the true story of Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher who, after witnessing atrocities against fellow Blacks, led a doomed slave uprising in 1831 that resulted in the deaths of some 60 slave-owning white families in Parker’s home county of Southampton, Va.

Parker, the movie’s director, co-writer and star, has said fellow filmmakers told him the film would never get made. 

“It had every challenge against it,” Berman, 34, said during a recent interview in Westwood. “It’s a period piece with a first-time director. And then there’s the violence. There was concern about [depicting] the killing of women and children — as well as about the title of the film.”

 The title is the same as that of D.W. Griffith’s notorious 1915 movie, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan. When Berman watched the earlier drama years ago, he was so repulsed that he couldn’t finish it. “I thought that Nate’s idea for the title was brilliant,” Berman said. “It was reclaiming the name of one of the most racist films ever made — as a means to confront bigotry and injustice in this country today.”

Parker’s film takes on even more significance given the recent focus on police shootings of Black men around the country, as well as the call for more diversity in Hollywood.

Berman was determined to join Parker’s team when one of his former producing partners sent him the script in June of 2014. “I read it twice and then went out and did all my own research on Nat Turner,” he recalled. “I wanted to help get the film made, even though I knew it would be a Herculean task.”

Berman was even more enthusiastic when he attended a lunch meeting with Parker not long thereafter. “I was struck by his passion about the subject and about race issues in America,” he recalled. “I was blown away by him. I knew we had to have a director who could speak eloquently about the film, and there was no doubt in my mind that anyone who would take a meeting with him would have a high likelihood of investing [in the project].”

Berman was drawn to Parker’s movie for more personal reasons, as well. Having grown up in a Conservative Jewish home in suburban Baltimore, he was well aware of the Jewish history of oppression and of the slaves’ struggle. “I believe Nat Turner was a good-hearted person who was fighting for what he believed in,” Berman added.

The producer also has a fondness for coming-of-age stories, and in his eyes Parker’s character traverses that kind of journey. “His eyes are opened when he witnesses the horrific treatment and torture of fellow slaves,” Berman said. “But he grew from that, became his own man, and that, ultimately, led to his rebellion.”

Raising funds for the film took on an urgent dimension because Parker had declared he would put his acting career on hold until he could make the movie. “That drove us,” Berman said of himself and his fellow producers. “We were affiliated with a project where the leader had basically stopped working for two years and had almost nothing in his bank account. He was willing to do whatever he needed to get this movie made. And that was unbelievably inspiring for all of us.”

Berman and his producing partners eventually raised the film’s nearly $10 million budget by cobbling together funds from more than a dozen financiers. Their efforts were rewarded when “The Birth of a Nation” received a sustained standing ovation upon its premiere at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where it also won the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic features. The movie sold to Fox Searchlight for a record-breaking $17.5 million and has received lots of Oscar buzz.

He found some of the filming difficult to witness — especially the scene in which Parker first sees his bludgeoned wife in the aftermath of her brutal rape by white slave hunters. Berman also recalls how emotionally draining it was for the actors portraying the film’s white tormentors. “But everyone felt the sense that we were creating something that was going to be special,” he said.

A pall over the project occurred, however, when news reports emerged of charges of rape filed against Parker when he was a student at Penn State in 1999. Parker and his college roommate, Jean Celestin — who is the film’s co-writer — were accused of the crime by an 18-year-old female student. Parker was acquitted two years later, but Celestin was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to six months in prison, according to Variety. 

“Celestin appealed the verdict and was granted a new trial in 2005, but the case never made it back to court after the victim decided not to testify again,” Variety reported. The woman went on to commit suicide in 2012 at age 30. 

Articles on the subject have continued, prompting calls for a boycott of the film — to the dismay of Berman and his colleagues. “Nate was acquitted, and in this country you are innocent until proven guilty,” Berman said. “But this whole thing has been retried again in front of a worldwide audience, and it’s been very tough for us.

He added, “There are going to be people out there who have heard about this who may decide not to go see the movie. But my hope is that when people hear about the emotional power of this film, they will change their minds.”

Berman grew up in Pikesville, Md., where he battled dyslexia from an early age, which manifested as a difficulty with reading comprehension. “It was painful and frustrating, because I’m an overachiever,” he said. 

From first grade on, Berman attended the Jemicy School in Baltimore, a school for dyslexic children, but he struggled there for a time, as well. “That’s why I fell in love with watching movies — ‘E.T.’ ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus,’ ” he said. “It was a great form of escapism; you could watch a movie and be transported to another place.”

Berman excelled in high school at the esteemed Quaker Friends School of Baltimore, where he founded the school’s film program and convinced the Avid company to donate an editing machine to the school. “The desire to succeed was burning inside of me,” he said. “To be able to overcome dyslexia, you have to persevere, to be persistent, to keep pushing — and what better skill set to pick up to become an independent producer?”

After graduating from the film program at USC, Berman went on to produce movies such as “The Benefactor,” starring Richard Gere, and “Mediterranea,” about North African refugees in Italy. In 2011, Variety named him one of 10 top producers to watch. Two years ago, he became vice president of Mandalay Pictures, where he is now responsible for developing the company’s slate of films as well as packaging projects.  

Berman hopes that “The Birth of a Nation” will eventually be used as an educational tool. 

“Nate wants [viewers] to come out of the film and be able to start a conversation,” Berman said. “He wants people to become change agents.”

“The Birth of a Nation” opens Oct. 7 in Los Angeles.