![]() “The subject matter was tough - everybody knew that - but when they met Nate Parker, his drive, his passion and his determination were what sold them.” “Anytime Nate got on the phone with anybody or got in the room with anyone, they were completely intrigued by him,” says Berman. ![]() It was those meetings with Parker, says producer Jason Michael Berman of Mandalay Pictures, that won over even the most doubtful financier. He flew around the country - everywhere from New York to West Palm Beach, Fla., to Los Angeles - to meet with anyone who might be interested in investing. He invested $100,000 of his own money to hire a production designer and fund a location scout in Savannah, Ga. “As a black man, you leave auditions not hoping you get the job but wondering how you explain it to your family if you do.”īut Parker was determined, and he began looking for financing. Despite notable work in such films as The Great Debaters (2007), The Secret Life of Bees (2008) and Red Tails (2012), he grew frustrated with many of the roles that came his way. “Imagine my dismay,” he says, “in learning that one of the greatest men to walk the soil in this country was a man who grew up and lived and breathed and fought less than 100 miles from where I grew up.”Īfter graduating from college with a degree in computer programming, Parker moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. ![]() Parker didn’t even learn about Turner’s story (despite growing up in Virginia) until he took African-American studies classes in college. “Growing up as a black man in the South, there was such a shortage of heroism in respect to the history that I was taught,” says Parker, who was a high school wrestling state champion and All-American at the University of Oklahoma. The Sundance Hot List: 10 Films Most Likely to Sell ![]()
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