Rebirth of a Nation \ DJ Spooky (2009)

Nearly 100 years after DW Griffith’s epic Birth of a Nation was released, DJ Spooky (aka Paul D Miller) applied a “DJ mix” to one of the most revered and reviled films ever made. Miller’s reading of the overt racism depicted in a Reconstruction-era South hurtles Griffith’s images into the 21st Century, a socio-political landscape that has evolved beyond all expectations. Using cinematic history as the starting point for critique, not only of a horrifying past but for a new vision that interrogates what we think of multi-culturalism, in a world that is rapidly becoming Americanised.

DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of A Nation was commissioned by The Lincoln Center Festival, Festival D’Automne à Paris, Spoleto Festival USA and Wiener Festwochen (Vienna). Additional support was provided by the American Center Foundation and Mass MOCA

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky is a composer, multimedia artist and writer whose work immerses audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. His written work has been published by The Village Voice, The Source, and Artforum, among others, and he is the Editor of Origin Magazine. Miller’s work has appeared in the Whitney Biennial; The Venice Biennial for Architecture; the Ludwig Museum in Cologne; Kunsthalle, Vienna; The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Miami/Art Basel fair, and many other museums and galleries. Miller’s award-winning book “Rhythm Science” was published by MIT Press 2004, and was followed by “Sound Unbound,” an anthology about electronic music and digital media, in 2008. “The Book of Ice”, an experiential visual and acoustic portrait of the Antarctic, was published in 2011 by Random House.