The perseverance and success of Nate Parker

Nate Parker plays Nat Turner, who led the 1831 slave rebellion

Sometime last year, I read an online story about actor Nate Parker's decision to quit acting until he could produce a movie he had long fought to make. After filming for Beyond the Lights concluded in 2013, Parker said he told his agent to not send him any more roles until he could take the story about revolutionary slave hero Nat Turner to the big screen.

Parker's resilience paid off and The Birth of a Nation, about Turner, a slave who led a rebellion against Virginian slave owners in 1831, came to fruition. The movie, which Parker wrote, produced, directed and starred in, debuted Monday at the Sundance Film Festival, and has reportedly been purchased by Fox Searchlight for a record $17.5 million. It is the highest amount ever paid for the rights to a movie in the festival's history. And it could've gone for more, as sources reported that Netflix, the online streaming platform, had offered $20 million.

What makes this story so remarkable to me is the journey Parker took in making this film. It took him seven years to advance this movie from the writing stage to funding and then filming. For nearly two years, Parker wasn't a working actor, which means he didn't earn any income from acting. Instead, he invested his own money, including $100,000 to fly around the country talking to anyone he hoped could help finance the movie.

Parker wrote, produced, directed and starred in the biopic

Two of his eventual investors included a pair of NBA players (Gosh I just love my sports connection, don't I?) in current San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker and former player Michael Finley. Why do I bring this up, besides the obvious sports plug? To highlight the fact that there are unconventional ways to make a movie. A significant issue cited by many amid the current #OscarsSoWhite controversy is that minorities often struggle to have quality movie projects funded. Parker's own struggles in getting the movie financed were well documented in an article by Rebecca Ford of The Hollywood Reporter, in which he voiced his frustration with the kind of roles he was being offered.

"So few of them had integrity," he said in his interview with Ford. "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."

He shared in the article that as he pitched the movie to studio execs, he was repeatedly turned down with reasons such as these:

"Movies with black leads don't play internationally; a period film with big fight scenes would be too expensive; it was too violent; it wouldn't work without a big box-office star leading it; Turner was too controversial — after all, he was responsible for the deaths of dozens of well-off white landowners."

Last May, after 27 days of shooting–yes, you read it correctly– filming ended at its Georgia location. And thanks to the perseverance of its visionary, who plays Turner in the movie, The Birth of a Nation debuted to a standing ovation and exceptional reviews. I'll not only be heading to the movies to see this during opening weekend, but I'll be cheering for its nomination during next year's awards season.

Note: All pictures are screen grabs taken from the movie and credited to Elliot Davis of the Sundance Institute.