I have now recently seen Spike Lee’s new film, BlacKkKlansman, twice, and I am left with an overflow of thoughts and emotions. Not ignoring some poignant points made by Boots Riley ( Sorry to Bother You) , who convincingly argues that the real Ron Stallworth was not the hero the movie portrays, I think it is an amazing movie. It is the first film that really grapples with America in the age of Trump, despite being set in the Nixon administration. It is not a film that is designed to start a conversation exactly – maybe a riot – but it forces us to to grapple with some dark conclusions. The film begins with shots from Gone With the Wind and Birth of a Nation , two films that transformed the possibilities for what cinema could achieve, and two films that are remembered for their reactionary views of the American Civil War . Until this week, I had never seen DW Griffith’s Birth of a Nation; I knew it for its place within the context o...
Malcolm Coates