- Lee criticised Detroit (Bigelow, 2017) and Django Unchained (Tarrantino, 2012) for being directed by white directors who were “misappropriating” or “misrepresenting” black narratives.
To an extent, Spike Lee’s opinion on the subject can be somewhat appreciated on the grounds that when making a film surrounding historical events, whether fictional or true, directors are solely producing presumption onto the screen, and therefore can be perceived as a misrepresenting form of content.
However, his ridicule on the misrepresentation on narratives seems contradictory in retrospect to the essence of a film, as films are fully subjective to opinion and do not represent the world we live in, in fact more times than not movies find themselves on the other side of the spectrum.
It is a controversial subject, and I can understand why Spike Lee would not be happy with the standing of the directors, however overall I believe that as film creators, we have to understand and appreciate narratives that allow us to see alternate and in some cases fictional perspectives.