Spike Lee Rants Against Trump At ‘Blackkklansman’ Press Conference
Spike Lee was relaxing on Martha’s Vineyard when the now-infamous Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville, Va., turned deadly last summer. He had only just finished his latest film, “BlacKkKlansman,” a ’70s caper based on the real-life tale of an African American cop who infiltrated the KKK with his Jewish partner on the police force.
But watching the news out of Charlottesville unfold on CNN — and learning that 32-year-old Heather Heyer had been killed after being run over by a car during the ensuing riots — Lee knew he had to change the end of “BlacKkKlansman.” He quickly got the telephone number of Susan Bro, Heyer’s mother, and asked for her permission to use the real-life footage of the incident as a “coda” to his film, which debuted to strong reviews at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday night.
“Once I got the permission, I said … everybody else: That … scene is staying in the … movie,” Lee told an audience of journalists at a news conference here, launching into a passionate, expletive-laden monologue. “Because that was a murder. And we have a guy in the White House — I’m not gonna say his … name — whose defining moment — not just for Americans, for the world — that … did not denounce the … Klan, the alt right, and those Nazi ….”
SOURCE ⇒ LATIMES
