Spike Lee Asks Everyone To Wait Until His Film 'Chiraq' Is Made Before Criticizing It

Spike Lee held a press conference in which he asked all of his critics to wait until he's actually finished his latest project before criticizing it. His next film, a musical comedy, will be called "Chiraq," a phrase used to compare the gun violence in Chicago with the war in Iraq. In yesterday's presser, he addressed backlash that has come from activists, ordinary citizens and politicians alike, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who think the film will further tarnish the reputation of the city. "We felt that it was appropriate that we say what the narrative is," Lee said during his remarks. He goes on to say that people, straight up, "don't know what the hell they're talking about." Chicago has been under siege from gun violence with hundreds of shootings and homicides recorded just in the first few months of this year. "That's nearly six a day being shot in Chicago," said Rev. Michael Pflegler said at one point. If anything is going to make tourists and businesses steer clear of Chicago, it's stats like that. "I am 100 percent that the great city of Chicago can survive a film of conscious just like it did The Transformers," John Cusack, one of the film's stars, said during his remarks. As someone from a city that also has a reputation for violence and other sorts of craziness (New York), I've never gotten the sense that portraying the negatives on screen has been a deterrence to businesses or anything else for that matter. The subways are always packed. Tourists seem to flock here nonstop. True, New York also has a reputation for being a place of romance and art and big dreams, where you can live a fantasy life like that on Sex & The City or Friends. But all of those shows also touch on some of the perils of NYC life and the Big Apple isn't the worse for wear. "Way back when I made Do The Right Thing, people said that film would cause riots. That black people were going to run amok," Lee said. "But those people ended up being on the wrong side of history. And the same thing is going to happen here in Chicago." Do The Right Thing is a fantastic movie and if Chiraq is anything like it, we should all be getting our dollars ready to see it. But more than that, Chicago has real problems that are causing the loss of real lives. And this "controversy" is taking away from energy that could be better used looking for solutions. Lee did the right thing (sorry) by getting out in front of the talk and bringing along some trusted local voices to vouch for him. Video of the presser is available on the Vulture blog.

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Spike Lee Asks Everyone To Wait Until His Film 'Chiraq' Is Made Before Criticizing It

"People act like they've never seen none of my films."

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Tonya Garcia