Well known in the music scene, DJ Spooky has recently moved beyond just remixing music. He recently released a remix of the supposed 1915 film masterpiece “Birth of a Nation“, which depicts the confederates as heros and is apparently one of the most racist movies of all time. I’ve never seen the movie myself (and actually hadn’t even heard of it until today) and completely disagree with the advancement of racist ideas. That is why I was really interested to find out that DJ Spooky, himself an African American, had created a remixed version of the film, which he calls Rebirth of a Nation. The original film is in the public domain, so anyone is free to use the footage as they see fit, which is what Spooky did:
By remixing the film along the lines of dj culture, I hoped to create a counter-narrative, one where the story implodes on itself, one where new stories arise out the ashes of that explosion.
The end result is very, very cool. I can’t do it justice trying to describe it, so you can (and should) view a short 15 minute excerpt of Rebirth of a Nation at the DJ Spooky website.