Spike Lee is using his platform as Cannes Film Festival jury president to speak out. On Tuesday, responding to a journalist who asked about Russian oppression, he said: “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.”
Lee also made it clear that he doesn’t hold it against Cannes that Do the Right Thing was snubbed by the jury. “Cannes is the world’s greatest film festival, no disrespect to any other film festival,” he said, adding that he once undertook a crazy journey to be at the fest while also supporting his favorite basketball team. “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.”
Lee also discussed how little things have changed over the years for Black Americans: “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 mothafuckin’ years later, Black people would stop being hunted down like animals. So I’m glad to be here though.”