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With allegations of racism and leaders – “gangster” the curtain of the 74th Cannes Film Festival

“This world is run by gangsters,” he said Spike Lee, the first black director to chair his Jury Festival of Cannes denouncing, together with other members, the racism but also the policies of the presidents of Russia and Brazil.

At the beginning of the press conference for the presentation of the Commission, the New York director, wearing a black hat dated 1619 (the year the first slaves arrived in the USA), returned to the subject of blacks in America, which he constantly explores in films. of it, starting with the emblematic “Do the right thing» (Do the right thing, 1989).

More than 30 years after the film, “one would think that they would have stopped chasing blacks like animals,” said Spike Lee, referring to African-Americans as victims of police violence in the United States, such as “Brother Eric GardnerOr the “king George FloydWho were “killed, lynched”.

The award-winning director also attacked the former US president Donald Trump, which he calls the “orange factor”, in Bolsonarou and the Putin. “They have neither morals nor doubts. We have to oppose this kind of gangsters “, he commented, as broadcast by APE BPE.

Spike Lee also answered a reporter’s question from Agriculture referring to the situation of the LGBTQI community in her country, where the Pride Parade was canceled on Monday, following riots on Sunday by homophobic groups. “Thank you for raising this issue in the international press. “Now it is up to the journalists to get the message across,” the director said, expressing his support.

In the same press conference, the Brazilian director Kleber Mendonsa Filiou criticized his country’s policy towards the Covid-19 pandemic but also “its contempt for culture”.

The women-dominated commission also returned to the hot topic of women’s position in cinema. “I really believe that the majority of women can choose different films, react differently. Women write their novels, their songs in a different way. “I’m curious to see what comes out,” said the British actress Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The 74th Cannes Film Festival, which was canceled last year due to the pandemic, will open today with the film Annette by Leos Carax, starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver.

The spotlight will then fall on the actress and director Jodi Foster, 58 years old, who will be awarded an honorary Palm Gold for her entire career.

The Spanish director is also present in Cannes Pedro Almodovar, without a film this time, but only to celebrate the “return” of the Festival after the pandemic.

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