I am nottired of films about slavery.

This is not to say that I watch them for a few hours of escapist entertainment, or that I take some grotesque pleasure in viewing gory portrayals of this nation’s unforgivable sin, depictions that still fall short of the unfathomable reality. Yet in a country that too often has a selective, even revisionist relationship with its own thorny history, it’s essential for us to be exposed, by whatever means, to anything that seeks to illuminate not just our troubled past, but also its present-day repercussions.

So I welcome “The Birth of a Nation,’’ the story of Nat Turner’s 1831 Virginia slave insurrection. Writer-director Nate Parker also stars in the film, to which he devoted seven years and much of his own money. Making its debut at last month’s Sundance Film Festival, it was sold to Fox Searchlight for a festival record $17.5 million. And the film, which claims as its title the same name as D.W. Griffith’s virulently racist 1915 landmark, also copped two major Sundance awards.

Still, some aren’t quite as excited about the arrival of Parker’s passion project. In her recent essay, “I’m So Damn Tired of Slave Movies,’’ Jezebel writer Kara Brown said, “It’s obvious at this point that Hollywood has a problem with only paying attention to nonwhite people when they’re playing a stereotype. Their love of the slave movie genre brings this issue out in the worst way. I’m tired of watching black people go through some of the worst pain in human history for entertainment, and I’m tired of white audiences falling over themselves to praise a film that has the courage and honesty to tell such a brutal story.’’

I understand Brown’s perspective, because I’ve been there. A few years ago, I avoided “12 Years a Slave’’ because I couldn’t abide watching black people savaged. When I finally saw it, I feared it would put me in such a foul mood that I waited until a long weekend to give myself time to recover before I’d have to encounter large numbers of white people. To be black and watch a film about slavery is to feel even more intensely what your ancestors suffered, and to be reminded of the psychological tax that we pay every day in America, whether it’s police misconduct in Chicago or environmental racism in Flint, Mich. It is never a frivolous time at the movies.

Regardless of race, we all reckon with a bitter legacy that has yet to be fully relegated to the past. It is alive, still pulsing with the blood and viscera that continue to tarnish us. Still, when I watch films about slavery (and to be clear, there haven’t been that many), there is also resilience and resistance. I see a vibrant culture carved from chaos, and an indomitable strength to survive even when the law demanded subjugation and extinction.

Yes, there is more to African-American lives than slavery, and the breadth of our experience deserves a place on movie screens. Yet I reject the idea that films about slavery, the most recent made by black filmmakers, necessarily pander or fetishize African-American suffering for white audiences. Parker recently told USA Today, “All I want people to do is open their eyes and look at our past and see that there are things that happened in slavery that still affect us today.’’

Long overlooked, Nat Turner, whom Parker described as “one of the bravest revolutionaries this country has ever seen,’’ is finally getting his close-up. And when “The Birth of a Nation’’ is released later this year, those who care to see it may find in Turner’s tale of defiance and spirit their own difficult and unique American story.

Renée Graham writes regularly for the Globe. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.