‘Da 5 Blood’s Spike Lee On Covid Vaccine, Trump Impeach Trial, Heading 2021 Cannes Jury & What’s Needed To Keep Film Inclusion Wave From Crashing
EXCLUSIVE: While 2020 was most everyone’s worst year, you’d be hard pressed to find a filmmaker who got more done than Spike Lee. He’s in the middle of the awards season race with his superb Netflix drama Da 5 Bloods; got raves for the virtual Toronto Film Fest and HBO premieres of American Utopia, based on the live Broadway show by former Talking Heads front man David Byrne; and generated the short films New York, New York and 3 Brothers, the latter of which played on CNN and drew connective tissue between the police custody deaths of George Floyd, Eric Garner and Radio Raheem, latter a fictional character from Lee’s 1989 film Do The Right Thing. Here he reflects on 2021 and the year ahead.