John Cusack, left, and Spike Lee attend the premiere of “Chi-Raq” at the Ziegfeld Theatre
Kind words were in short supply for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel at the premiere of Spike Lee’s latest “joint” “Chi-Raq” yesterday (Macau time).
Emmanuel fired the city’s police superintendent after tensions flared over the release of a graphic video that showed a black teenager being shot by a white police officer (see below).
Lee predicted at the premiere, held before he and cast members participated in an anti-gun violence march, that “some more heads are gonna roll.”
The police superintendent “is not going to be the only one,” Lee said.
Lee’s satire is based on the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. This modern adaptation is about the murder of a child hit by a stray bullet in Chicago’s South Side, and the group of women that organize a unique way of dealing with the ongoing violence; they hold back sex.
Chicago actor John Cusack, who appears in the film, said the shootings and killings in Chicago each year are “unacceptable,” and cited political motives.
He said the police officer involved in shooting the 17-year-old wasn’t charged or the superintendent fired until the city’s election had passed. Emanuel won a second term earlier this year. The shooting took place in 2014.
“It’s very tragic that information was suppressed for an election cycle,” Cusack said.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who walked the film’s orange carpet before the premiere, said the power of the satire can send a message to young people about gun violence more than Tuesday’s announcement in Chicago.
The movie’s kickoff segued into the anti-gun violence march. Lee, Sharpton and members of the film’s cast joined about 150 people who marched from a midtown theater to Times Square. Actor John Turturro, who isn’t in the movie, marched with them.
Activists wore orange beanies with pompom tops. The color was chosen from the vests hunters wear as a “don’t shoot me sign,” said Cleo Pendleton, whose 15-year-old daughter, Hadiya Pendleton, was killed in Chicago in 2013.
Lee even wore orange-framed glasses.
Actor Nick Cannon, who portrays Chi-Raq in the movie, said the march was being held “for the right reasons.”
“We’ve got to get out here and express our pain the right way,” he said.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest and social activist from Chicago who is the basis for Cusack’s character in the movie, urged the crowd to pledge to end gun violence. Rachelle Blidner & John Carucci, New York, AP
No Comments