FEATURE | BLACKKKLANSMAN
SPIKE LEE’S BLACKKKLANSMAN IS THE FIRST MAJOR MOVIE TO ARRIVE AS A REACTION TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S AMERICA. DOP CHAYSE IRVIN TALKS THROUGH HIS PART IN ITS PRODUCTION
WORDS MADELYN MOST / PICTURES UN I VERSAL
explained that Producer- Director Jordan Peele called him out of the blue to pitch the story of Ron Stallworth, the first African-American police officer and detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department who infiltrated the ranks of the KKK. The film would be based on Stallworth’s memoir, Black Klansman: Race, Hate and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime . “When my co-writer Kevin Willmott and I came on board, our job as storytellers was to take this story from the early
ery few American films were invited to the 2018 Cannes Festival, but Spike
Lee’s latest ‘joint’, BlacKkKlansman, was a powerful exception that sent shockwaves through the audience. Lee’s first Cannes experience was in 1986 when he won the Prix de Jeunesse for She’s Gotta Have it , and his 1989 Do the Right Thing was nominated for the Palme d’Or but was mysteriously displaced by Steven Soderbergh’s debut film, Sex, Lies, and Videotape . At the press conference for BlacKkKlansman , Spike Lee
70s and connect it to the present day,” Spike says.
70 DEF I N I T ION | SEPTEMBER 20 1 8
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