Spike Lee and The 'BlacKkKlansman' Cast Want You To Know The Past Is Our Present

With almost forty years in the film industry, something has compelled Spike Lee to tell every single story upon which he’s cast his lens. BlacKkKlansman, the astounding tale of now-retired black police officer Ron Stallworth's infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan is no exception. “For the last thirty years, from She's Gotta Have It (1986) to BlacKkKlansman (2018), and all the films in between, the documentaries, Michael Jackson videos, Prince videos, short films, all are important to me," Lee revealed on a Sunday afternoon in late July as we sat in the corner of a swanky New York hotel overlooking Central Park. Stallworth's story, of being the first black police officer to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department, came to Lee through another visionary filmmaker -- Academy Award winner Jordan Peele. "I had never heard of Mr. Stallworth or his book. So that was the first time," Lee said, as he placed a vibrantly colored backpack with an image of his character Mars Blackmon on the window ledge next to us. "Even before I read the book, Jordan pitched it to me. I thought they were doing the David Chappelle skit again," he said, referring to Chappelle's fictional character Clayton Bigsby the black, white supremacist. "David Chappelle is brilliant, but that was a skit; this is someone's life. We found things in the past that ring true today, and hopefully, people will make the connection and see that this film is not a period piece, but a contemporary piece. It's about the word we live in --this crazy, crazy bananas world we live in today."

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'BlacKkKlansman' Is Spike Lee’s Most Blunt, Bold And Boisterous Film

Legendary director Spike Lee brings retired detective Ron Stallworth's memoir to life in his piercing new film BlacKkKlansman. An engrossing adaption of Stallworth’s induction as the first black police officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department, the film follows his first year on the force where Stallworth would find himself entangled in a case that would help humiliate the Ku Klux Klan. Set in the late '70s at the height of the Black Power movement, BlacKkKlansman centers on the young and ambitious Ron Stallworth (portrayed by John David Washington), who refuses to be shoved in the evidence room, a black token in an endless sea of white faces. When Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael (portrayed by Corey Hawkins) visits Colorado Springs, Ron jumps at the chance to infiltrate the crowd and report back to his supervisor about black activism in the city. What he doesn’t expect is to befriend Patrice Dumas (portrayed by Laura Harrier), the leader of the local college's Black Student Union. Though Ron is intent on working within the system to make a change, Patrice uses more “radical” approaches to combat racism, white supremacy and injustices even when it means literally putting her body and life at risk.

Given a position in the police department's intelligence section for his efforts at the Kwame Ture rally, Ron finds himself fascinated with an ad that calls for white people to join the local chapter of the KKK. On a whim, Ron comes up with a scheme to infiltrate the organization and report on its members' heinous activities and behaviors. However, no matter how "white" Ron's voice might sound on the phone, his swagger, deep skin tone and gleaming afro prevent him from meeting the local klansmen face-to-face. Instead, he's forced to partner with Flip Zimmerman (portrayed seamlessly by Adam Driver), a seasoned Jewish detective who wants nothing to do with Ron’s investigation.

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Netflix's 'She's Gotta Have It' is bold, brilliant & black as hell (Review)

From the moment the Prince/ Notorious B.I.G. opening track rings out from the television screen, Spike Lee’s electric new Netflix joint She’s Gotta Have It springs to life. After much critique about his "woman problem" in some of his past work — Lee has gotten with the program. Tracy Camilla Johns’ 1986 Nola Darling, which was set against a crisp black and white Brooklyn background will always remain glued in my memory, but the film was ruined for me when our protagonist was viscously raped by her suitor Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks). I haven’t gotten over it, and neither has Lee.In a 2014 interview with Deadline, he said, “It was just totally…stupid. I was immature.” We are in an age where women – especially Black women are laying themselves bare, and unapologetically demanding to be heard. With guidance from his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee who also serves as an executive producer on the Netflix TV adaptation of She’s Gotta Have It — Lee presents an image of a Black woman who is as refreshing as she is enticing. Shots Fired and Underground alum DeWanda Wise is center stage this time, delivering a brown-skinned Nola Darling whose the homegirl you love, envy, and are sometimes exasperated with. Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It is a complicated and multi-angled portrait of a millennial Black woman trying to make in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Nola’s got her men — Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony), Jaime Overstreet (Lyriq Bent), and Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos) all return in vibrant color with new layers and subtle personality changes. However, she’s also got her girlfriends Shemekka Epps (Chayna Lane) and Clorinda Bradford (Margot Bingham), a lady lover (Ilfenesh Hadera) and a bomb ass therapist (Heather Headley). Gentrification is rampant, money is tight, but Nola is living — and how she lives, who she makes love with, and the art that she creates is going to be on her terms.

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BlackStar Film Festival Spotlight: Time travel & police brutality collide in 'See You Yesterday,' exec produced by Spike Lee

Loss often feels unfathomable — a festering wound that never quite seems to heal. All-consuming at times the weight of it all bears down on you. It becomes the sole object of your focus, the pain and heartbreak demand every ounce of emotion that you have. In some instances, the overwhelming sense of sadness might cause you to do some shocking things. In his superb short film See You Yesterday, director Stefon Bristol explores the anguish of losing a loved one through the lens of science fiction. (Think J.D. Dillard’s Sleight or the Black Film & TV Collective’s web series, Keloid.)

Set in Brooklyn and executive produced by Spike Lee, the film follows quirky teen CJ (Eden Duncan-Smith) and her best friend Sebastian (Dante Crichlow). Devastated by the untimely death of her older brother Calvin (Parish Bradley), CJ is determined to fix it. She and  Sebastian build a time machine with the hopes of returning to the past and changing the course of events that led to Calvin's shocking death.

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Interview: Teyonah Parris Talks ‘Chi-Raq’, Female Driven Stories & the Storm Surrounding the Spike Lee Joint

The year I graduated from a Chicago Public high school, 27 of my fellow CPS peers were gunned down. Last year, there were a total of 2,587 shooting victims in the city. I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, and in the 18 years that I lived there full time, things changed drastically, And yet, it’s still home to me. When Spike Lee announced his new film “Chi-Raq”, I was immediately disturbed as were many of my family and friends who still called Chicago their home. When the initial trailer for the film was released, further fuel was added to an already smoldering flame.  However, knowing Spike Lee’s history of pushing back against systematic oppression, and exploring the varied issues that continually plague the Black community, Lee’s satire “Chi-Raq” fits into his lengthy filmography.

Leading up to “Chi-Raq’s” release, the lovely Teyonah Parris who is the lead actress in the film, recently chatted with Shadow and Act about the project, the controversy surrounding it, and what drew her to the story to begin with.

Aramide Tinubu: Thanks so much Teyonah for speaking with me and with Shadow and Act.

Teyonah Parris: Of course, I am familiar with you guys.

AT: Oh that’s fantastic; well I know you only have a limited amount of time so I’d love to get started.

TP: Yes ma’am.

AT: Great, well let’s talk about “Chi-Raq”. Ironically, I was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, so when I first heard that Mr. Lee was naming his new film “Chi-Raq” I was admittedly alarmed. However, what stuck out to me when I initially viewed the trailer was the fact the story seemed to be focused on women. So often, horrible acts of violence affect women and children most deeply. More frequently than not, we are the ones who are left behind.  I feel like a more female-driven perspective hasn’t been seen from Spike Lee since his film “Crooklyn” in the early ‘90s.  What is you opinion on that, do you feel like “Chriraq” is a woman’s story?

TP: I think that the movie being led and the source of leadership that comes from a woman in this film, I definitely think is exciting, and I think like you said, we’re often left out of the narrative and our side of the story is generally not explored. Particularly in circumstances where there are larger numbers of men who are a part of this situation. Let me be clear, there are women who are also apart of this, I’m painting a very broad stoke.

AT: Oh most definitely, of course.

TP: But yes, it’s often the women who are left to deal with everything and put the pieces back together.  So to have this young woman Lysistrata, take a stand and lead the charge in reforming this community and the movement going global; I think it’s really exciting to see a woman take charge in that way. I think that it’s also important to remember that our movie “Chi-Raq” is based off the Ancient Greek play “Lysistrata,” which was written over 2400 years ago by the playwright, Aristophanes. So [Spike Lee] really took the exact narrative and put it on the South Side of Chicago, and it’s crazy that  the story is still so potent and so relevant.

AT: Centuries later.

TP: Yes, centuries later.

AT: How did you come to the project?

TP: I came on to the project after meeting with Spike at just a very general breakfast. We didn’t talk about work or anything, but he had seen “Dear White People” and we just had a general meet and greet, so to speak. And then a few weeks later he just sends me an email with the script for “Chi-Raq”. There was no preface or anything, he just sends it and says read it.

AT: Oh my wow, OK.

TP: So I’m reading it and I see the name Lysistrata, and I’m familiar with that play. I did it during my time at Julliard. Then I realized that the play was set on the South Side of Chicago. I thought, oh wow; Spike is doing the modern reimagining of this play; so that automatically got me excited. And then once I’d spoken to Spike, the first thing that he said was that we have to save lives. If we save even one life, then we’ve done our work. But we have to save lives, and that’s what his mission has been going forward with the film. And, that’s been mine for sure as an artist, being a part of this.

AT: There has been a ton of controversy surrounding the film already. I know that people are extremely outraged because the rampant gun violence in Chicago is very real. Did you have any reservations about “Chi-Raq” because of that? And where do you feel all of the pushback has come from?

TP: I think that we’re dealing with a real life situation. This isn’t something that has been made up; the statistics in that city are very real. Spike did not create that, and he also did not create the term “Chi-Raq”. That was born of the community from local rappers in an effort to express the dire situation that they’re in, which is essentially that you are safer in the streets of Iraq or Afghanistan than you are on the South Side of Chicago.

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Image: Chi-Raq/Amazon