Power of Images

It's amazing to watch Birth of a Nation and think that the following decades' black films were made in response to that one film. That really says something about the power of images. With improvements in technology and understanding of human perceptions and interactions (through psychology, sociology, etc.), film is an even more potent tool.

Birth of a Nation's propaganda offered a white supremacists' History of the Civil War and an amazing source of indoctrination and recruitment. Racial superiority can be shown in contrast between people of different skin color or in terms of strength. Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will offered amazing shots of the 1934 Nuremburg Rally and Wehrmacht troops marching through the streets. The Third Reich separated the "Aryan Race" and Jewish people in film. In 1940, the superiority of the "Aryan Race" was reinforced by the propagandist film The Eternal Jew.

Presently, films like Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will are discussed for their technical aspects or overall effects, but few people believe the premises of these films. That said, illogical and irrational stereotypes found in all three still exist, which means that these films have a powerful legacy. Higher education alone is unlikely to combat racism, therefore people have to take it upon themselves to challenge it in everyday life rather than allow the continuance of the "negative peace" Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of. One has to consider what the newer forms of Birth of a Nation are; what films are subtley reinforcing generations old propaganda?