Submarine ChannelProfessor / turntablist / activist / clever person DJ Spooky’s new movie “Rebirth of a Nation”, which recently premièred at MOMA, is now available on DVD – and it’s definitely something you might want to own. Originally commissioned as a live multimedia performance, it uses Spooky’s mad remixing skills, plus a heavy dose of his GSOH, to turn D. W Griffith’s 1915 blockbuster “Birth of a Nation” on its head. The original – now widely viewed as a thinly veiled ode to the Ku Klux Klan – was described by Wilson (himself an ex-Clansman) as, “writing history with lightning”. Mr Spooky applies his beloved digital technology to re-write that history, re-mixing the content, and highlighting some of the movie’s more hateful scenes, to drive home to viewers the role of the media in framing history and influencing progress (or not, as the case may be).
