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Nate Parker is our hero. The actor is having the best year ever and it’s only March. After having his upcoming project, “The Birth Of A Nation,” sold at Sundance Film Festival for an unprecedented $17 million, Nate is putting a portion of his fortune towards an amazing cause.
The 36-year-old just established a new film program at Wiley College, where he also shot “The Great Debaters” with Denzel Washington and Jurnee Smollett-Bell in 2007. Wiley is an HBCU (Historically Black College & University) located in Marshall, Texas. The new program, The Nate Parker School of Film and Drama, will enroll it’s first class of students in the fall.
Nate has remained in contact with the school over the years and even tapped the choir to be a part of the soundtrack for “The Birth Of A Nation.”
“The hope is that we cover all aspects of filmmaking, from sound, lighting, and cinematography, to just studying film specifically with the cultural component and the history of film,” he said.
According to Shadow & Act, prior to the fall semester, 30 high school students and college students, including 10 Wiley seniors, will have the opportunity to participate in a nine-day film intensive this summer.
“If I can create a pipeline toward filmmaking physically through developing the college, having filmmakers be nurtured and cultivated here, and then having somewhere for them to go with respect for them actually being able to engage in filmmaking here in East Texas, then it kind of serves multiple purposes,” added Nate.
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