ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that the film's participation in racism as a signifying process cannot be made distinct from the film, and that indeed, without its racism, the film would not have the status it has today. It focuses on the production of meaning in The Birth of a Nation, specifically with respect to race. One such issue is the relationship between the aesthetics or artistic value of a film, and its dissemination of ideology—in this case the ideology of racism. The Birth of a Nation is all too often given its status within film history despite its participation in the processes of racism. Thus, although the cinematic code of "readability of the frame" is operative here, the narrative subordination that results, and the subordination by framing that reinforces it, are not themselves independent of constructing meaning with respect to race.
