Spike Lee talks about ‘Black people being hunted down’ at Cannes press conference
Lee is the first Black jury president at Cannes, and described it as "the world’s greatest film festival" during Tuesday's official press conference
At the Cannes Film Festival press conference on Tuesday, jury president and esteemed filmmaker Spike Lee spoke on “Black people being hunted down,” Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and more.
As theGrio previously reported, Lee was announced as president of the jury for the 74th Cannes Film Festival back in May. He is the first Black person to head the Cannes jury for the festival, which takes place this July 6 -17.
At the time, festival president Pierre Lescure shared in a statement, “Throughout the months of uncertainty we’ve just been through, Spike Lee has never stopped encouraging us…this support is finally coming to fruition and we could not have hoped for a more powerful personality to chart our troubled times.”
At the official press conference with the entire jury on Tuesday, Lee made numerous remarks surrounding his work, current events, and more.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Lee described the world as “run by gangsters” when responding to a question.
He shared, “This world is run by gangsters — Agent Orange [Donald Trump], the guy in Brazil [president Jair Bolsinaro] and [Russian president Vladimir] Putin. They’re gangsters, and they’re gonna do what they want to do. They have no morals and no scruples. And we have to speak out against gangsters like that.”
He also opened up about his classic film Do The Right Thing, which was screened at the festival but was snubbed by the jury in 1989. He said its themes are still relevant today.
“When you see brother Eric Gardner, when you see king George Floyd, murdered, lynched, I think of Radio Raheem. You would think and hope that 30-something mothaf— years later, Black people would stop being hunted down like animals. So I’m glad to be here though.”
A true fan of the festival and its legacy, Lee is also a huge basketball fan, something that played a role in a previous appearance at Cannes. At the press conference, he told a charming story about when he flew all the way to France and back so that he wouldn’t miss a Knicks game.
“Cannes is the world’s greatest film festival, no disrespect to any other film festival…It was back in the ’90s when the New York Knicks were good, and we were in the finals. I flew from Nice to New York for a game and came back.” He added, “Knicks lost that game.”
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