Spike Lee
Interview By: Benjamin Lee
Without doubt the most influential African-American director of our time, Spike Lee is best known for his racially charged dramas, known as 'Spike Lee joints'. But for his new film, When the Levees Broke, released on DVD this month, the drama is all frighteningly real.
When the Levees Broke is a harrowing documentary which details the tragedy that befell the residents of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit last year. It's a controversial film, which tackles not only the victims but also the alleged perpetrators. Lee, who has recently appeared on TV to defend his views, puts forward the idea that the Republican Government were to blame for the levees breaking. The documentary is also damning of the poor response the Government had. Lee is sure that had things been different politically, the tragedy would have been diminished.
'I think if someone else was in office it would not have taken five days for the federal Government to show up' Lee believes, 'It would not have taken that president twelve days to set foot in the mud in New Orleans.' What Lee is pleased with, is the recent election results. 'I think that the American public have finally seemed to have stopped falling for the 'okey-doke' and the rigmarole of the Republican regime.'
When it comes to addressing the problem as it is, Lee is glum about the current state of affairs. 'People are still in distress' he states, 'All this money that Bush has talked about and promised, no one has seen'. Lee does stress the important effect that the documentary has had on the general public. 'A lot of people have told me personally that they saw the stuff in the news but they didn't know the magnitude of what's been happening in New Orleans', he expresses. But he also states that the likeliness of a political effect is slim. 'I don't think that there's anything I can do to push the United States Government.'
The documentary takes a brave stance and dares to voice many of the theories people believe concerning the Republican Government at the time of Katrina. It's especially daring considering that Spike Lee works within an industry, traditionally run by Republicans. When asked if he's had any negative feedback from his peers, Lee answers 'not me personally'. But he claims he did have one voice of dissent amongst the viewers. 'There was the TV critic from the New Orleans Times' Lee recalls, 'And his complaint was that it only told the African-American side of the story but last time I looked New Orleans was a predominantly African-American city. But I think that many people are represented in the film, black and white.'
Despite the powerful content, it's a documentary which hasn't caused any form of political revolution or increase in aid toward the South. 'I'm not happy that nothing has come out of it but the film stands as a document alone' Lee expresses, 'We did our part and we continue to do our part. I know I sound like a broken record but even with 6 hours worth of footage on the DVD this is still an incomplete work because New Orleans is still incomplete.'
The lack of a resolution to post-Katrina New Orleans means that Lee isn't leaving the story alone just yet. 'We wanna stick with this' Lee states, 'Hopefully take a cue from Michael Apted and revisit what has happened.' As well as some sort of follow-up documentary, Lee also intends to turn the story into a TV series. 'We're in development at NBC' Lee reveals 'It's a slow process working with network television'.
'It would be New Orleans post-Katrina' he tells, 'It would be the aftermath. We're not dealing with people drowning, we're dealing with the so-called rebuilding of the city and people's lives'. Despite the recent success of 9/11 movies United 93 and World Trade Center, Lee is adamant not to follow in their footsteps. 'Don't wanna do it' he stresses, 'I will not be doing a narrative film about the breaching of the levees.'
Even though over a year has passed since the tragedy, there's still a long way to go. Lee is passionate about what he wants to happen in New Orleans. 'I want people to be able to begin their lives again' he says, 'I want the many hundreds of thousands of people who are dispersed amongst the other 46 states to be given a means and a way to come back home. But I also want them to come back home to schools, to jobs, to schools, to work. That's asking a lot, that's a big Christmas'
The problem now however is that a lot of people have become settled in places other than New Orleans. 'Some people don't wanna go back' Lee tells, 'Some people have found new lives. They've found better jobs, better living conditions, better schools for their children.'
When it comes to future projects, other than the Katrina TV series, there's another big movie on the cards. This year Spike Lee achieved his biggest commercial success in his 20-year career with Inside Man which grossed $88 million in the US alone. There has already been rumors of an Inside Man 2 in development and it's something Lee is excited to be involved in. 'If it happens I'm gonna be directing it' he reveals. There is a script which Lee claims is 'good but it's gotta get better'. When it comes to assembling the dynamite cast of the original Lee shares that 'Denzel wants to do it too. Everybody's ready.'
In a year where Spike Lee had the most box office success in his entire career, he also managed to create one of the most defining documentaries of recent years. It may not have made any concrete changes in Government but it's got people thinking. After all, Lee smiles, saying 'They can't say it wasn't true!'
