Spike Lee had a lot to say about Charlottesville, Donald Trump, and hatred at Cannes
The crowd stood up and roared with appreciation for six straight minutes as the credits rolled on Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman, which premiered at Cannes on Monday. Meanwhile, this trailer gives us all a first look at the prolific filmmaker's latest work.
BlacKkKlansman recounts the true-life story of Ron Stallworth, a black police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in 1979. He was working at the Colorado Springs Police Department when he came across a classified ad for the hate group and decided to call the number.
"I eventually spoke with a gentleman over the phone responding to that ad, and the gentleman explained to me that he was starting a Klan chapter in Colorado Springs and was looking for new people," the real-life Stallworth explained in a 2006 interview with NPR.
With help from a white undercover officer working at the department's narcotics desk -- he posed as the man behind the call for in-person meetings -- Stallworth joined the KKK. His certificate of membership was even signed by David Duke, the hate group's former Grand Wizard.
The trailer strikes a humorous tone, but the movie comes with a serious message. It ends, in a much-buzzed-about coda, with a montage of scenes from the summer 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va. that turned deadly.
The sequence wraps up with a dedication to Heather Heyer, the woman who was killed when one of the white supremacist marchers, James Fields, Jr., plowed his car into a crowd. BlacKkKlansman happens to open on Aug. 10, just a couple days before the one-year anniversary of Heyer's death.
At the film's Cannes press conference, Lee described Heyer's death as "an ugly, ugly, ugly blemish on the United States of America." He also noted that he'd received permission from Heyer's mother, Susan Bro, before inserting imagery of Fields "murderous act."
"I was not gonna put that murder scene in the film without her blessing," Lee said. "Mrs. Bro said, ‘Spike, I give you permission to put that in.’ Once I got permission, I said, ‘Fuck everybody else, that motherfucking scene is staying in the motherfucking movie.’ Cuz that was a murder."
Lee's comments about Heyer and the Charlottesville formed the start of what turned into a five-minute monologue, during which he discussed Donald Trump -- "I'm not gonna say his fucking name" -- and hatred, both in the United States and around the world.
You can read a full transcript of what he said right here.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
