CITY HALL — A South Side alderman got little support Monday in his attempt to block a state tax break for Spike Lee's movie "Chiraq."
Ald. Will Burns (4th) submitted a resolution to the City Council Finance Committee seeking to prevent the Illinois State Film Office from granting a $3 million tax credit to Spike Lee's "Chiraq," which recently shot in Chicago.
Burns insisted the term "Chiraq" was coined by gangbangers and therefore "glorifies gang violence." He added that the film would taint the city's reputation and discourage economic development, and that therefore Lee's movie was not eligible for a "government subsidy."
Yet the Rev. Michael Pfleger scolded aldermen for what he called an "orchestrated distraction."
"I'm almost insulted by the fact that we're discussing this," said the pastor of St. Sabina at 78th Street and Racine Avenue. "We're not dealing with the real issues."
Pfleger pointed to the seven killed and 34 people shot over the weekend in Chicago, and the 234 killed so far this year, saying he wished the council was debating those issues.
"Instead I'm discussing the name of a movie," Pfleger added.
Burns said he was not pushing for a vote on the matter, but that he wanted to throw it open to public debate. He thanked the council for taking the time to address a "complicated" issue. Yet the debate quickly turned against him.
The matter is actually moot, at the moment, as all state film tax breaks have been halted by Gov. Bruce Rauner over his budget impasse with the General Assembly.
Yet state Sen. Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) immediately countered that the City Council "has no power" over the state film subsidy.
While acknowledging that the title is "shocking," comparing the city to a Middle East war zone, she said she expected the film to "shine a light" on and give an "honest acknowledgement" of the city's problems with gun violence.
"The violence was here long before Spike Lee came to Chicago," Collins said. "Let's deal with the real issue, and it's not the title of a movie."
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th) likewise defended Lee, saying, "I think he's on a mission" to "raise consciousness." Burnett added, "We need to give the brother a break."
"I think we should be welcoming his courage," Pfleger said. "We ought to be thanking him."
"I'm a big Spike Lee fan," said Bernita Johnson-Gabriel, executive director of the Quad Communities Development Corp. Yet she sided with Burns in stating that the movie would tar the city's reputation and impinge on economic development.
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), however, said he thought passing the resolution would have a chilling effect on the city's film industry and movie production here.
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