Parker stars as Lincoln Jefferson (yes, Lincoln Jefferson), an ex-Marine and working-class father raising his son, K.J. “We needed to get this thing out there and maybe save lives.” “We shot this movie in April, with some sense of urgency,” Parker told the crowd. Spike Lee both produced and presented the film, about a black man whose 14-year-old son is killed by a police officer. That changed with American Skin, which was added to the Venice lineup as a Special Screening. Birth of a Nation tanked at the box office, and not much has been heard from Parker since. He and his co-writing partner on the film, Jean Celestine, were charged with rape, though Parker was later acquitted and Celestine was convicted. Then details of rape allegations from his college years resurfaced. In 2016, Parker’s Birth of a Nation premiered at another film festival, Sundance, as an early awards contender. The filmmaker’s hyperbole wan’t surprising, but the fact that he was talking about Nate Parker’s American Skin was. “40 years from now you can say you were here.” “You’re a part of history,” Spike Lee told a sold-out screening at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday. That relevancy is why it remains one of his most appreciated films.A still from Nate Parker’s American Skin, which premiered at Venice Film Festival on Sunday. Those emotions ripped through the audience with the words: “We’ve never seen Democracy, all we’ve seen is hypocrisy! We don’t see any American Dream we’ve experienced only the American Nightmare!” Starring Denzel Washington, the film demonstrated Lee’s ability to tackle historical material and make it applicable to modern-day audiences. Although the production had a slew of budget issues, many of which were ameliorated thanks to such celebrities as Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey, the film debuted at the height of a new wave of police brutality, epitomized in t he Rodney King case. Spike Lee’s 1992 Malcolm X forced America to reckon with the legacy of one of its Civil Rights Leaders who not only pointed out racism and hypocrisy embedded deep within every layer of society (“The Ballot or the Bullet” being one of his most outstanding speeches), but who did not give way to compromise to further the agenda of the middle. He crafted a narrative that promises eventual resurrection while making it clear that the city’s people deserve all the credit for the city’s survival. Yet, Lee does not allow the tone to be hopeless. The footage’s skill and direction forever ensure that the audience can understand who was responsible for the dereliction of duty as New Orleans floundered. It also manages to still come across as scathing without pointing fingers. Jazz music is applied throughout, using the soundtrack of the Big Easy to its fullest effect. Lee interviews residents from all walks of life, the cameras taking people into the Super Dome and the Ninth Ward.ĭivided into four acts, this documentary has an operatic scope and feel. It held the audience’s hand while the storm raged and fully displayed what happened in the New Orleans aftermath. This Spike Lee film took viewers to the hours leading up to Hurricane Katrina. In 2006, HBO premiered perhaps its most important documentary to date: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.
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