‘Birth of a Nation’ stars Gabrielle Union and Nate Parker help voter registration drive in theaters

Fox Searchlight Pictures has announced it will team up with various theater chains and voter organizations to launch a voter registration drive tied to the release of its upcoming slave-revolt drama “The Birth of a Nation.”

The initiative will be launched at special advance screenings of the film on Tuesday in support of National Voter Registration Day and continue when the film opens on Oct. 7. Voter registration will be held in the lobbies of participating theaters, a number of which are in swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In a press release announcing the drive, Fox Searchlight said, “The objective for the initiative is to encourage everyone to be a part of U.S. history by highlighting everyone’s right to vote, encouraging registration and underscoring that their voices and opinions matter.”

The film’s director and star, Nate Parker, along with several of the film’s cast members, including Gabrielle Union, have recorded a public service announcement about the importance of the right to vote, which will be shown prior to the Tuesday promotional screenings.

“No one has the right to prevent you from participating in what makes America’s democracy so great: the right to vote,” Parker says in the PSA.

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A breakout at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and one of the most closely watched potential awards contenders of the fall movie season, “The Birth of a Nation” chronicles the slave rebellion of Nat Turner, played by Parker. In recent weeks, the film has weathered controversy following the resurfacing of allegations of sexual assault by Parker nearly two decades ago when he was in college, accusations of which he was acquitted.

The smash Broadway musical “Hamilton” has also announced it will host a voter registration drive on Wednesday and Saturday outside the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York, where the show is running.

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