A FORCE OF CINEMA BATTLES A FORCE OF NATURE. BY BRYAN
REESMAN
Throughout the last two decades, maverick film director Spike
Lee has passionately confronted political and social issues in both
feature films (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X) and
documentaries (4 Little Girls, Jim Brown: All-American).
His latest work, the HBO documentary When the Levees
Broke, chronicles how the devastated city of New Orleans is
still trying to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The epic
documentary premieres on HBO in two parts on August 21 and 22, and
in its entirety on August 29, the one-year anniversary of the
Katrina disaster. When the Levees Broke also marks Lee's
20th feature film in 20 years.
What compelled you to make a documentary about
Katrina? I just knew that this was going to be an
important story in American history. I'm not saying that I have a
crystal ball, but when I look back at it … I just think that this
is a very important story that Americans want to see. It was very
important for me to let the people from New Orleans tell their
story, and I'm also very grateful that Sheila Nevins and HBO have
given me the platform for it. It's a four-hour documentary, and
we're dealing specifically with the Crescent City. We acknowledge
that Hurricane Katrina affected all of the Gulf Coast states, but
we're dealing with the most unique city, in my opinion, in the
United States of America.
We've obviously been bombarded with images of the aftermath
of Katrina. How will you provide us with a different perspective
than what we've already seen? The media, for the most
part, focuses on something and then they let it go. But the people
in New Orleans are still living with this today. One of the things
that we hope with the broadcast of this film is to get the nation's
attention back to New Orleans and the other Gulf states. August 29
marks a year [since this happened]. How much has changed? How much
progress has been made? These are questions that I think people
would like to have answered.
The outpouring of generosity from the American public was
unprecedented, but at the same time, America's attention span is
very fickle. I don't want these American citizens to be forgotten.
I don't want a great American city to be forgotten. These are not
refugees, as they have been called. These are American citizens.
There is a big difference between evacuees and refugees. The thing
that has really come across to me is the spirit of the people who
faced great devastation, great loss of property, and even greater
loss of life. Somehow they're able to find humor in it sometimes.
In New Orleans, you just stay there. You don't leave your
neighborhood. Some people might see that as a negative, but that's
how particular people are about their beloved city. These are all
the things that we want to convey with this film, this spirit of
the people.
What is the one event or situation that you documented that
touched or affected you the most during the making of this
film? For me, this is a very hard documentary to make. The
main reason is that the story changes all the time. 4 Little
Girls happened in 1963. This is a living, changing story, so
even when we're done and it's delivered to HBO, the story is still
not done. This is "to be continued."
Are there going to be images in this documentary that
people haven't seen before that might shock them? I think
so. We're very frank in showing the devastation. We're not pulling
any punches, and because we are on HBO, we can show a lot of stuff
that network television can't show.
When the Levees Broke is your 20th feature film in
20 years. Looking back, are you surprised at the longevity of your
career? No, it doesn't surprise me because that was a goal
from the, beginning - to build a body of work. And you build a body
of work by hanging around and learning and growing. When Akira
Kurosawa was 80-something years old, he said there was still a
world of cinema that he had yet to learn. And I never want to be in
the position where I think I've learned everything and there's no
need to learn anything more. I don't want to be like that, that's
for sure.
August also marks the DVD release of Spike Lee’s Inside Man (Universal), a taut bank-job thriller from earlier this year that stars longtime Lee cohort Denzel Washington, as well as Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, and Christopher Plummer. While the idea (Owen has planned the perfect bank robbery — or has he?) may seem slightly straight-ahead for someone as notoriously pot-stirring as Lee, Inside Man proves how fascinating the simplest ideas can be when paired with a visionary director and a Murderer’s Row–like assemblage of actors. (Lee proves it again, really, since he did it before with 2002’s The 25th Hour.) I’m not saying Lee could direct a Barney movie and it would be good. Actually, I am, so long as Washington is Barney, Ed Norton plays B.J., and Angela Bassett is cast as Baby Bop, with Terence Blanchard recasting the “I Love You” song as a jazz hymn. — Zac Crain