Considered the father of the motion picture and the first great artist of the cinema, director D. W. Griffith revolutionized filmmaking with technical innovations and a narrative structure still in use at the end of the twentieth century. His most significant and controversial movie, The Birth of a Nation (1915) established the feature-length film and the Hollywood star system. After a private viewing at the White House, President Woodrow Wilson reportedly remarked that the film "was like writing history with lightning." Released on March 3, The Birth of a Nation was not only the longest and most expensive movie to date, but it was the most popular movie of its time and the most politically explosive film in American history.

David Wark Griffith was born on January 23, 1875, in the town of Crestwood in Oldham County, Kentucky. He was an aspiring actor from 1897-1907, traveling...