Filmmaker Spike Lee tells international press at Cannes Film Festival to cover attacks on activists in Georgia
Spike Lee, jury members and filmmakers at a Cannes Film Fesstival press event this week. Photo via theplaylist.net.
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Academy Award- and BAFTA-winning American filmmaker Spike Lee responded to a question at a Cannes Film Festival press conference about violent attacks on reporters and a queer event in Tbilisi this week by urging journalists to cover the developments.
Lee, known for his works in cinema around political subjects, civil rights and racial issues, said in response to a question from a Georgian journalist he had not been aware of the developments but added it was "on the journalists here to spread the word".
The press event, involving juries of the festival Maggie Gyllenhaal and Tahir Rahim, as well as director Kleber Mendonça Filho, alongside Lee, heard the impassioned question from Anano Bakuradze, journalist and co-founder of digital storytelling media platform Movement.
Bakuradze prefaced her words by noting her question was not about the filmmaking work of the panel, before informing them about the incidents on Monday in Tbilisi, where right-wing groups attacked reporters dispatched to cover an upcoming Tbilisi Pride queer march in the city, before also storming the offices of the organisers of the event.
Thank you for sharing that with the world press. Now it’s on the journalists here to spread the word. You heard it. Do your research. You can go write. It’s not criticising movies. You can [critique] world gangsters too
- Spike Lee, film director
In his response Lee admitted he had not been aware of the incidents, but recognised the effects of conservative right-wing political governments on activism and human rights. The American director thanked the Georgian journalist "for sharing that with the world press" and urged the latter to take up a coverage of the events.
Another response came from Gyllenhaal, who also recognised she wasn't "equipped to give any kind of advice on activism to a Georgian activist and journalist" but adding she would look into the news about events in Georgia in the subsequent days and would welcome an opportunity to speak again on the matter afterwards.
Cannes Film Festival opened on Tuesday and is set to run through July 17. The famed French cinema event will involve a screening of Georgian filmmaker Tengiz Abuladze's 1984 feature Repentance in the Cannes Classics section.
Violent right-wing groups took over the protest space outside the Parliament of Georgia and burned the European Union and LGBT flags, after the peaceful rally against violent events of the previous day, as well as media crews, were escorted by law enforcement away from Rustaveli Avenue.
State officials, current and former diplomats and media rights organisations have been reacting to the developments in Tbilisi on Monday, where a right-wing demonstration against a planned Tbilisi Pride march for queer rights attacked reporters gathered to cover the eventually cancelled event before also storming offices of Pride organisers.
Journalists and media representatives in various regions of Georgia held media solidarity rallies earlier today following the violent attacks against journalists yesterday at the Tbilisi Pride march counter rally by right-wing groups.
Members of the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition have responded to violent attacks by right-wing groups on civil activists and media in front of the Georgian parliament and elsewhere on July 5-6.
The Georgian authorities and religious representatives have failed to counter homophobic rhetoric, following violent attacks by right-wing groups against civil activists, community members and journalists in central Tbilisi on July 5, a joint statement of the Members of the European Parliament on the cancellation of the Tbilisi Pride march says.