Excerpt
SUMMARY: "Chi-Raq," the latest film from Spike Lee, uses satire to explore the problem of gun violence in America. The movie is set in Chicago, a city that's been wracked by tensions with police as well as a very high number of murders. The director sits down with Jeffrey Brown.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): The urgency behind Spike Lee’s new film is announced right at the top.
MAN: Homicides in Chicago, Illinois, have surpassed the death toll of American special forces in Iraq.
JEFFREY BROWN: It’s called “Chi-Raq.”
MAN: Welcome to Chi-Raq.
JEFFREY BROWN: The title mixes Chicago and Iraq. The film mixes social satire and deadly serious issues of gang violence.
In a Washington, D.C., movie theater recently, Lee told me why he felt compelled to make the film.
SPIKE LEE, Director, “Chi-Raq”: We, as Americans, shouldn’t be OK with our young people being shot down in the street.
The South Side of Chicago is a mass murder capital of the United States of America. Chicago is the canary in the coal mine.
JEFFREY BROWN: The emergency Lee sees, guns in America used by black men to kill other black men, while the gap grows between rich and poor communities even within the same city.
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