Scholarly debates on the significance of The Birth of a Nation have continued for decades since its release on February 8, 1915. The film was directed and co-written by D.W. Griffith, a Kentucky native who believed in the commercial viability of feature films. As part of the film Griffith included Thomas Dixon's The Clansman, which was the original title before The Birth of a Nation. The film takes place in South Carolina during the late 1800's. The story line follows the romantic involvement between a young female from the North, Elise, and, a Southern male, Ben, who meet after a battle in the Civil War. Conflict arises when Elise's, father, a Congressman, condemns her from seeing Ben after it is discovered her lover founded the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Ben's younger sister, Flora, goes out to fetch water on her own and is pursued by a freedman soldier. Flora leaps to her death in fear of the black man, and is found by her brother, Ben. The freedman soldier is killed by the KKK and left in front of the home of mulatto Silias Lynch, who was elected Lieutenant Governor after Lincoln's assassination. Ben and his family flee when Lynch decides to crack down on the KKK. When Lynch has Ben's father arrested, Elise goes to plead for his release, but, instead, Lynch insists on Elise's hand for marriage. Similar to Flora, Elise is paralyzed with dismay by Lynch's proposal. Luckily for Elise and her father, who was also disconcerted with Lynch, Ben comes to rescue her and captures Lynch. The film finishes with a rhetorical inquiry regarding the future of White Christian supremacy in the United States. Griffith is given credit for being the first director and producer of a film of this kind. It was the first film to have an entire score written for an orchestra and use dramatizing techniques such as climax building and combining history and fiction. The Birth of a Nation continues to be studied for its inventive use of techniques such as deep focus, the jump cut, close-ups, iris shot, the split screen, and rapid-fire editing. The battle scenes in the first half were of the largest scale yet seen on a movie screen. The New York Evening Post of 1915 describes the battle scenes; "Troops charging, artillery trains galloping, flags waving, shells bursting over barricades, the flow of battle over a field miles in length, are shown in full detail; and immediately after the exciteme