David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance 1916 Griffiths film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera and narrative techniques and its immense popularity set the stage for the dominance of the featurelength film It also proved extremely controversial at the time and ever since for its negative depiction of Black Americans and their supporters and its positive portrayal of slavery and the Ku Klux Klan Griffith responded to his critics with his next film Intolerance intended to show the dangers of prejudiced thought and behavior The film was not the financial success that its predecessor had been but was received warmly by critics Several of his later films were also successful but high production promotional and roadshow costs often made his ventures commercial failures Even so he is generally considered one of the most important figures of early cinema
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