From an 8.23 Variety story, “The Nate Parker Interview: What’s Next for The Birth of a Nation‘ by Ramin Setoodeh: “The Birth of a Nation was supposed to finally end two years of #OscarsSoWhite, but the movie might cause further ripples within the Motion Picture Academy. Some prominent members of black Hollywood are standing with Parker, but they haven’t backed him publicly yet. ‘I don’t like the timing of this,’ says one well-known black director, who asked not to be named. ‘I’m not defending his actions, but something is wrong about the way it went down.’ Another black director who knows Parker, but also requested anonymity, said: ‘It worries me that a film and a guy with so much promise gets cut down a month before his masterpiece gets released. The last two years have proven how much our stories matter to this industry, and this seems like a way to muffle a very important piece of work.’”