Director Spike Lee, known for poetic-driven films stemming from African American culture, stirred up a great deal of controversy when the official trailer for his upcoming film “Chiraq” was released. The film's name for violence-prone areas of Chicago, it's a mix of Iraq and Chicago, as if to label the city as a war zone. If you know anything about Lee and his films, this comes as no surprise.
People have been extremely critical of Lee from watching the trailer because it comes off as a comedy. As if the film is mocking a serious situation happening in the streets of Chicago. No one wants to see a movie about an issue in their hometown being made fun, because there is nothing funny about seeing multiple homicides or hearing about them in the news every day.
However, people shaming the film based on the trailer ought to push past the initial emotions and have an open mind about this film and not judge a movie by its trailer. The approach to making the trailer came off as offensive to people from Chicago like me, but it did just what Lee wanted it to do: raise eyebrows.
There have been reactions from people saying that he’s from New York, not Chicago, so he wouldn’t understand the lifestyle or culture of that city, and those people are probably right. My initial reaction to the trailer was that Lee was trying to bring in his know New York cultured way of directing films to Chicago.
I’ve seen most of the Spike Lee joints and several of them (the most popular ones) are based out of New York, so I wasn’t thrilled about what I saw from the trailer. I thought: “You can’t just come into my city thinking you know what goes on here and that you have the answers to the issues here.” But again — the reactions and emotions are all just based on a trailer.
As a Chicagoan, the trailer feels wrong. Greek comedy, okay. But Nick Cannon yelling "Chiraq"? https://t.co/DqUl0A3WmQ
— Ferrari Sheppard (@stopbeingfamous) November 3, 2015
of course i am going to see @SpikeLee's film #Chiraq what i'm immediately concerned with is the singular role it assigns women in culture
— Kevin Coval (@kevincoval) November 3, 2015
Even though the trailer looked like a comedy about women abstaining from sex to stop violence, similar to the trailer “Miami Tail,” the trailer for “Chiraq” is strategic enough to make someone at least consider watching the whole film. As Lee explained in an interview, “Chiraq” is a satire film and is designed to send a message to the young generation in Chicago.
He’s done other satires before, and maybe people didn’t realize the name and what kind of messages those films were meant to send. In that same interview is a more in-depth trailer of the film, which is what should have been released originally. It probably would not have sparked as much controversy, but Chicagoans would have been more accepting of it.
This film is for those living in those violence-prone areas of Chicago, not to glorify them, but to help them realize what they are doing to each other. The film is also for the rest of America to take a look at what is happening in the city of Chicago and to hopefully bring change by shedding light on such a dark issue.
This has nothing to do with giving the city of Chicago a bad image. Frankly, it doesn’t take a movie to know that there is mass violence in that city. It’s all about what message will be given to the audience, which is what Spike Lee is known for.
Now that I have more knowledge of what Lee is doing for this film, I encourage those especially living in or are from Chicago to go see this film with an open mind, and think about the message that is given. Whether or not this film changes anything, no one knows — but this film should get us to start thinking and talking and that is a step toward the solution.
Related Links:
Director Spike Lee speaks in honor of Black History Month
ASU Police: Crime down across University campuses
Reach the columnist at adonis.dees@asu.edu or follow @Don_D24 on Twitter.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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