Spike Lee releases short film as part of George Floyd protests

Spike Lee has released a short film as protests against the death of George Floyd continue, which equates Floyd’s treatment at the hands of police with Eric Garner’s and Radio Raheem, the character in Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing.

Lee released the film, which he called 3 Brothers, during an appearance on CNN as part of a special report on the protests engulfing the US. The film opens with the words “Will History Stop Repeating Itself”, and cuts together footage of the arrests of Floyd and Garner – both of which resulted in their deaths, with scenes from Do the Right Thing, in which Radio Raheem dies during a brawl after being choked by police officers.

Garner died in 2014 after being arrested in Staten Island, New York, and the officer involved, Daniel Pantaleo, was not charged. Floyd died on 25 May in Minneapolis; a white police office has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

In an interview, Lee told CNN’s Don Lemon: “How can people not understand why people are acting the way they are? … This is not new, we saw with the riots in the 60s, the assassination of Dr King, every time something jumps off and we don’t get our justice, people are reacting they way they do to be heard … We are seeing this again and again and again … This is the thing: the killing of black bodies, that is what this country is built upon.”

Lee also referred to his T-shirt, which carried the date 1619, the generally acknowledged date of the first arrival of indentured African labourers in Jamestown, Virginia, which marked the beginning of slavery in the US.

“The foundation of the United States of America,” he said, “is founded upon the stealing of the land from the native people and genocide, coupled with slavery … I am not condoning this other stuff but I understand why people are doing what they are doing.”