From: nyxfer%panix.com@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: NEWS:Media Racists Attack Spike Lee
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Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 20:01:41 GMT



Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

Media racists attack filmmaker Spike Lee

By Monica Moorehead

With the release of the film "Malcolm X" just three months away,
director Spike Lee is urging the public and especially the Black
community to turn out in huge numbers for the film during the
opening weekend.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times Aug. 26, Lee called
for a boycott of classes and work on Nov. 20, the first day the
film goes into wide release. He initially made the request at a
recent meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists
in Detroit.

In the interview, Lee justified the school boycott with the
explanation that his film will "provide the American history
children are not getting in school. If they go see the film and
write a report on what they've seen the teacher can't hold that
[skipping class] against them."

Whether Lee's call for a boycott will have an impact is anybody's
speculation. It's too early to tell. But it has already roused a
racist reaction.

The New York Post, notorious for its racist vulgarities, went out
of its way to solicit quotes from moderate African American
officials like New York Mayor David Dinkins and even the totally
discredited right-wing reactionary Roy Innis of the Congress of
Racial Equality. Both took issue with Lee's pronouncement.

The big business media are forever seeking opportunities to drive
a wedge into the Black, Latino and other oppressed and working
class communities. Lee has been a long-time target of the media
for his outspokenness on the question of institutionalized racism
within the education system and even Hollywood.

The movie "Malcolm X" could arguably become the most
controversial movie of 1992, similar in impact to the movie
"JFK."

It has been nothing short of a struggle for Lee to make this
film. Originally it was to be directed by Norman Jewison, a
well-respected white director associated with the movie "In the
Heat of the Night." When Lee pointed out that only a Black
director should make a film on Malcolm X, Jewison bowed out.

The next hurdle was the budget for the film. Warner Brothers had
agreed to a $28 million budget. When the film's production costs
exceeded that figure, the studio denied Lee additional funding.
Lee appealed to several Black entertainers, including Bill Cosby
and Oprah Winfrey, who intervened financially to insure the
film's completion.

It is not unusual for a film to go over budget. It is unusual for
a studio to deny extra funding. Except when the film is being
made by a Black director on a subject like the life of Malcolm X.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@igc.apc.org".)

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