D.W. Griffith

At the time, "Birth of a Nation" received mixed feelings but altogether blew up in popularity and became one of the biggest box-office money makers at the time. White audiences felt it was an accurate depiction of history, and extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan experienced a revival because of the film, with more members joining than ever before after its release. On the contrary, African American audiences criticized the film and organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People expressed their disapproval toward it. They claimed that its portrayal of blacks was both vicious and racist, and they took action by rioting, denying its release in major cities, and filing lawsuits against it. In response to the public's reaction to his film, Griffith claimed he wasn't racist at the time, and he went on to make another film about human intolerance, titled "Intolerance". Regardless of all the controversy, something that's clear is Griffith pioneered several cinematic innovations in his feature film, including using outdoor landscapes as backgrounds, applying total screen close-ups, and using lap dissolves to blend from one image to another.