![]() ![]() So what is the overall tone of Epicenters?ĭespite the serious subject matter, Lee’s docuseries is often irreverent. Wait, does Lee have a history of endorsing conspiracy theories?Īs t he Washington Post pointed out, in his documentary When the Levees Broke, Lee speculated that the New Orleans levees were intentionally blown up during Hurricane Katrina to flood poor Black communities.Īll right. ![]() Yet the question remains: What was he thinking, and how did the segment make it into the final cut to begin with? Lee and HBO have yet to comment, but two parents of 9/11 victims who subscribe to the inside-job theory released their own statement after Lee made his edits, decrying the series’s “censorship.” The response to Lee’s supposed endorsement was swift, as was Lee’s decision to return to the editing room, where he removed the offending section entirely (the fourth and final episode now runs 90 minutes, trimmed down from its original two hours). “And then the juxtaposition of the way Building 7 fell to the ground - when you put it next to other building collapses that were demolitions, it’s like you’re looking at the same thing.” “The amount of heat that it takes to make steel melt, that temperature’s not reached,” he told the Times. Lee himself seemed to lend credence to the inside-job theory both in the series and in the interview with the Times. At various times, Gage has also claimed that Israel was lurking in the background of 9/11 and that COVID-19 is a hoax. The group has long propagated the thoroughly debunked theory that the collapse of the World Trade Center was an inside job executed by controlled demolition. The original version of Epicenters, episode four, devoted about 30 minutes to the theories of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and the group’s founder, Richard Gage. Okay, so what happens in the fourth episode that’s so controversial? The final two episodes are also about New York’s resilience, this time in the face of the 9/11 attacks and the toxic air that circulated around Ground Zero thereafter. The first two episodes of Epicenters deal with New York’s resilience as the American epicenter of COVID-19 and the ways in which the crisis escalated under the Trump administration. I respect the intelligence of the audience.” However, after those with early access to the fourth episode of Epicenters noted that Lee seems to be in agreement with the conspiracy group, Lee and HBO have seemingly course-corrected before most of the docuseries has even aired, reediting the final episode and asking critics to reserve their judgment until they see the final cut.Īhead of the finale, set to air on September 11, HBO subscribers and longtime Lee fans may have questions, among them: What is this docuseries even about? What is actually going on in the now-controversial fourth episode? And what do the Boston Red Sox have to do with COVID-19? After watching the whole series, we have some answers at the ready. In an interview with the New York Times, Lee referenced the debunked “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” myth, adding, “My approach is put the information in the movie and let people decide for themselves. As you may have heard, the series courted controversy, with critics claiming that Lee’s docuseries lends outsize credence to the ideas of the conspiracy group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Lee’s 7.5-hour docuseries, the first episode of which has already aired on HBO, attempts the daunting task of addressing both the COVID-19 pandemic and the 9/11 attacks - particularly, New York’s response to these bookend tragedies over the course of two decades. None of which fully explains his latest undertaking, NYC Epicenters 9/11–2021 ½. The French critic and filmmaker Alexandre Astruc long ago coined the term camera-stylo, or “camera-pen,” suggesting that filmmakers can and should wield their cameras the way writers use their pens. He’s hardly the only documentarian to take this approach. Spike Lee’s documentaries usually take the form of visual essays, with the vociferous filmmaker making his voice heard from behind the camera (and occasionally in front of it) and outlining where he personally stands on an issue. NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021 ½ courted controversy before it even aired on HBO.
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