Spike Lee Says Rahm
Emanuel Bullied Him over Film’s Portrayal of Chicago Gun Violence
by Kipp Jones 24 Oct 2015Chicago, IL
In an
interview with Chicago magazine, director Spike Lee described Chicago
Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel as a “bully” over the mayor’s alleged attempts to censor an
upcoming film about Chicago’s gun violence and black-on-black crime.
Lee began filming Chi-Raq in June and says he
immediately met resistance from Emanuel, who left the Obama White House in 2010
to seek the mayoral office in President Obama’s hometown.
According to Lee, Emanuel went to great lengths to make
production of the film difficult, particularly over the film’s title.
Chi-raq is a term that was originally given to the city by
local rappers, who have compared Chicago’s violent crime to violence in Iraq.
After being “summoned” by the mayor to City Hall in April
during pre-production, Lee tells Chicago magazine he and Emanuel “got
off on the wrong foot,” as the mayor attempted to portray him as a villain for
bringing some of the city’s biggest problems to light.
“I’m not the bad guy, but that’s how he was trying to
portray it. Do I have the guns? Am I the one pulling the trigger? To be honest,
he’s a bully,” said Lee.
“He’s not gonna bully me. My tactic with the mayor—any
bully—is to come out swinging,” the director added. “I said, “Mayor, Your
Honor, you’re gonna be on the wrong side of history.”
Lee said during the film’s production, from June 1 to July
9, 331 were wounded by gunfire, 65 of them were killed.
“New York City has three times the population of Chicago;
Chicago has more homicides than New York City,” he said of Chicago, which
boasts some of the most stringent gun control laws in the country.
“[Rahm’s] whole thing was, the title is going to hurt
tourism, the title is going to hurt economic development. But what tourism is
he talking about?” said Lee, citing the city’s bustling tourism, while also
highlighting economic disparities in Chicago’s gang-ridden neighborhoods.
Spike Lee says Emanuel “doesn’t want [the film and its
subject matter] to go worldwide because it’s on his watch,” and “it’s gonna
give Chicago a bad image.”
“It is a fact that Chicago is the most segregated big city
in America. That’s not Spike Lee saying that. That’s a fact,” Lee said.
He and the film reportedly were met with threats by city
aldermen to block standard tax breaks if the title of the movie was not
changed. One of the alderman allegedly withheld city permits for an event connected
to the movie, but later backed off.
When he was asked by the mag if he felt Rahm Emanuel was
behind efforts to have him shut down, he answered, “A lot of stuff he might not
have done directly, but I see his fingerprints.”
Lee describes the mayor and others as “bullies” and
“bootlickers,” but he said they did not inhibit his resolve to tell the
story and that Chicago’s citizens were happy to have him tell it.
“Everywhere I went—North Side, West Side, South Side, black
people, white people—I got nothing but love our entire time here. Love,” says
Lee.
Chi-Raq is
described as a “modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata
by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.”
It stars Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, Wesley Snipes, and Samuel L.
Jackson.
The film will debut in December.
To read Spike Lee’s Chicago magazine interview in
full, click here.
As of Saturday, Oct. 24,
2,483 people have been shot, 373 of them killed, in Chicago in 2015.
Two people were killed and at least eight more were wounded in
shootings
across the city from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning.
Rahm
Emanuel
Rahm
I. Emanuel is the Chicago (IL) mayor,
Ari Emanuel’s brother, a member of
the Commercial Club of Chicago, and
was the White House chief of staff for the Barack
Obama administration.
Note: Richard M. Daley
was the Chicago (IL) mayor, Michelle Obama was his staffer, Valerie B. Jarrett was his deputy chief
of staff, and is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Michelle
Obama was Mayor Richard M. Daley’s staffer, a lawyer at
Sidley Austin LLP, and is a friend
of Valerie B. Jarrett.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
R.
Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Newton
N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of
Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr., and was a director at the Joyce Foundation.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank), the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, and the Sundance Institute.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Vernon E. Jordan
Jr. is Valerie B.
Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), a senior director at
the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Henry Louis
Gates Jr. was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), is a director at the NAACP
Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner.
Tonya Lewis Lee
is a director at the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, and married to Spike Lee.
Spike
Lee is married to Tonya Lewis Lee,
an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner,
and was a William Morris Endeavor Entertainment client.
Ari Emanuel is the co-CEO & director for William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment, and Mayor Rahm I. Emanuel’s brother.
Rahm I. Emanuel is Ari Emanuel’s brother, the Chicago
(IL) mayor, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was the
White House chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.
Mellody L. Hobson
is a member of the Commercial Club
of Chicago, and was a trustee at the Sundance Institute.
Kenneth
D. Cole is a trustee at the Sundance
Institute, and married to Maria
Cuomo Cole.
Maria Cuomo Cole
is married to Kenneth D. Cole, and a
trustee at the Brady Center to Prevent
Gun Violence.
Brady
Center to Prevent Gun Violence is a “Gun
Safety” group for guns.
Joyce Foundation
was a funder for the Brady Center to
Prevent Gun Violence.
Valerie B. Jarrett
was a director at the Joyce Foundation,
a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack
Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.,
Vernon E. Jordan
Jr. is Valerie B.
Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), a senior director at
the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Henry Louis
Gates Jr. was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), is a director at the NAACP
Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and an Oak Bluffs (MA)
homeowner.
Tonya Lewis Lee
is a director at the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, and married to Spike Lee.
Spike
Lee is married to Tonya Lewis Lee,
an Oak Bluffs (MA) homeowner,
and was a William Morris Endeavor Entertainment client.
Spike Lee pays up for
wrong-address tweet in Trayvon Martin case
March 30, 2012
| 4:57 pm
Spike Lee, a vocal Trayvon Martin supporter, has settled financially with a couple
whose lives were radically disrupted by his recent Twitter activism.
Lee,
who has more than a quarter-million Twitter followers, over the weekend
retweeted a Florida address said to be that of George Zimmerman, 26, the
neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26.
While Lee was criticized up front for what some saw as a
call for vigilante justice — some on Twitter threatened to tweet the film director's
home address to put the shoe on the other foot — things took a twist when the
address also turned out to be wrong. David and Elaine McClain, whose son is
named William George Zimmerman, were forced to flee to a hotel to avoid the
attention misdirected at their home.
Ari Emanuel is the co-CEO & director for William Morris Endeavor
Entertainment, and Mayor Rahm I. Emanuel’s brother.
Rahm I. Emanuel is Ari Emanuel’s brother, the Chicago
(IL) mayor, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was the
White House chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration.
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