Spike Lee’s upcoming ESPN series about American football player Colin Kaepernick has been titled Da Saga Of Colin Kaepernick.
Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) in Saudi Arabia, Lee revealed he has been working on the documentary series “for over a year”.
“Hopefully we’ll get it done soon,” said Lee. First announced in October this year, the series will aim to depict Kaepernick’s experience of the past few years, in which he has protested at the murder of Black people in the United States by taking a knee at National Football League (NFL) games. Kaepernick has been without a team since 2017.
Lee believes strongly that his absence from the game is for political reasons, not sporting ones. “The term is ‘blackballed’ – we’ve turned it around, he’s been whiteballed,” said the filmmaker. “There are 32 teams in the NFL, most teams carry at least two quarterbacks. The level of quarterbacks in the NFL is sub-par; and still no team has signed him.
“Six days a week he still works out waiting for that phone call; because he’s been denied his dream. Because he took a knee to bring awareness to the murder that was happening of Black and Brown people in the US, he was deemed a pariah.”
In a passionate and wide-ranging press conference at RSIFF, Lee spoke about directing the first film ever allowed to bring a camera into the Kaaba at Mecca, to film the hajj scene in 1992’s Malcolm X. “We knew that by hook or crook we had to show Malcolm’s hajj, ‘cos this was where he felt he converted to true Islam,” said Lee. “By the grace of god, the grace of allah, the high Islamic court gave us permission.”
He also recalled screening a four-hour cut of the film for the first time for Warner Bros executives Bob Daly and Terry Semel – by chance, on the day the verdict was announced in the trial of four police officers over the beating of Rodney King, a Black man in Los Angeles. “To their credit, while LA was burning down, Bob and Terry stayed throughout the whole screening,” said Lee. “Their assistants kept coming in and handing them notes – I thought they were going to say, ‘Spike I’m sorry, we have a helicopter coming in and we have to leave.’”
A fervent football fan, Lee regularly brought up the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar throughout the press conference, rising from his seat several times to mime striking a ball. He said the US’ loss to the Netherlands last night (December 3) was “disappointing”, and that he would be supporting Brazil going forwards.
He also offered his “blessings” to Brazilian football icon Pele, who is seriously ill in hospital. “I hope he recovers and gets healthy again,” said Lee. “We should all say our prayers tonight for Pele, if you could remember before you lay your head down on the pillow.”
Lee will host a public in-conversation session this afternoon at RSIFF, as will Blonde director Andrew Dominik.
No comments yet