Spike Lee to honour black soldiers
Lee has previously addressed racial issues in his films
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Thursday, 07, Jun 2007 06:20
Leading director Spike Lee revealed yesterday that he is to begin work on a new film which will highlight the contribution black American soldiers made in the second world war.
The movie will be an adaptation of James McBride's novel, Miracle at St Anna, which tells the tale of a group of black soldiers fighting against the Nazis in Tuscany.
Based on a true story, the book explores the experiences of members of the US army's 92nd division of all-black soldiers and the friendship one of them sparks up with an Italian orphan.
Lee, who has previously explored racial issues in films such as Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing, told Italian daily La Repubblica that the movie aimed to recognise the role played in the second world war by African-American soldiers.
Claiming that they had previously been overlooked by Hollywood, the director told the newspaper: "America started to remember the sacrifice of black soldiers in films on the Vietnam war, but before then, in those on world war two, they were almost invisible."
Trade paper Variety reports that shooting is to begin on the film in Tuscany next year.
Meanwhile Lee is also planning to keep busy with a follow-up to his award-winning documentary about the devastation wreaked in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
The director announced his decision to return to the controversial subject matter touched upon in the 2006 project when he collected a Peabody broadcasting award for the film earlier this week.
When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts featured footage not shown by US news networks in the aftermath of the disaster, including images of bodies floating in floodwaters near New Orleans.
"The story is not over," Lee told reporters.
"It's still something that's evolving and we want to keep on top of it."