Spike Lee appeared on ABC’s Windy City Live this morning in Chicago to discuss his forthcoming film Chi-Raq. The interview was at times combative, with Lee making some statements that won’t win him any friends in the Chi.
When asked about those who had an issue with a New Yorker making a movie about Chicago, Spike went in.
“You know what that sounds like? That sounds like those redneck [censored] in the South, when Civil Rights people come down to Mississippi or Alabama…’These rabble rousers come down here, we know how treat our Negros good. We don’t need nobody from up there telling us how to work our Negros.’ Same type of mentality.”
He added, “And also, why hasn’t a Chicago filmmaker done a film, then?”
Lee mentioned being a tenured professor at NYU’s Film School and having students who made movies on their iPhone. So he basically told anyone with a problem to tell their own story.
As for the film’s trailer, which got people (who usually don’t what a “satire” is) in a huff:
“I gotta say this, you might get mad. But a lot of people in Chicago [have] an inferiority complex about New York. One hundred.”
We definitely think Spike—who also said, “”When you deal with truth, it doesn’t matter where the person comes from”—would have a problem if Tyler Perry made a film about Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, though.
Watch the segment and more of the interview here.
[h/t Fake Shore Drive]
