Birth of a Movement is a 2017 American documentary film produced by Northern Light Productions and based on the book Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights by Dick Lehr. The film tells the story of how, in 1915, Boston-based African American newspaper editor and activist William Monroe Trotter waged a battle against D.W. Griffith’s technically groundbreaking but notoriously Ku Klux Klan-friendly film The Birth of a Nation based on the book The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. Birth of a Nation prompted a debate about race relations, media representation, and the power and influence of Hollywood that still continues. The film explores the backdrop to this clash between human rights, freedom of speech, and a changing media landscape.