LOS ANGELES: "Sorry to Bother You" director Boots Riley has slammed Spike Lees American biographical drama "BlacKkKlansman" in a lengthy essay posted on Twitter, accusing the film of skewing facts to falsely paint law enforcement as heroes.
"BlacKkKlansmen" and "Sorry to Bother You" are two summer films that have been revered for their progressive story lines spotlighting the African American community, reports variety.com.
Though "BlacKkKlansman" is based on a true story, Riley said he is sceptical of it and claims it is full of "fabricated story notes" about its protagonists Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), a black detective who infiltrates a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with his white partner (Adam Driver).
"It's a made up story in which the false parts of it try to make a cop the protagonist in the fight against racist oppression. It's being put while Black Lives Matter is a discussion, and this is not coincidental," Riley wrote in his introduction.
The director argued that the purpose of the "BlacKkKlansman" alleged revisionist history is to portray the police in a more favourable light in an attempt to soften relations between law enforcement and people of colour amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
In support of his claim, Riley has questioned the validity of Stallworth's memoir and its film adaptation, which credits Stallworth and his partner for halting white supremacist attacks, including an attempted bombing.
"Stallworth wrote a memoir to put himself in a different light, but let's look at what else we know. There was no bombing that Stallworth or the police thwarted. This was not in Stallworth's memoir. That was made up for the movie to make the police seem like heroes," Riley wrote.