George Floyd: Spike Lee releases chilling short film about police brutality

Director said ‘the attack on black bodies has been here from the get-go’

Spike Lee has released a powerful new short film about police brutality in America following the death of George Floyd.

Protests have been raging across the United States in recent days since Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after a white police officer in Minneapolis kneeled on his neck.

Lee’s new film, 3 Brothers – Radio Raheem, Eric Garner And George Floyd, cuts together a scene from his 1989 film Do the Right Thing, featuring the death of Radio Raheem, with footage of Eric Garner’s death in 2014 and Floyd being arrested earlier this week.

Garner’s case shares many similarities with that of Floyd. He was arrested on suspicion of illegally selling loose cigarettes and a white police officer used a chokehold to restrain him.

In footage of the incident, Garner could be heard repeatedly saying, "I can't breathe," and he was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Raheem, who is fictional, also died after being restrained by a white police officer on the street.

Lee unveiled the film – which opens with the question, “Will History Stop Repeating Itself?” – during a recent interview on the CNN special I Can’t Breathe: Black Men Living and Dying in America with Don Lemon.

“This is history again, and again and again,” Lee told Lemon. “The attack on black bodies has been here from the get-go.”

On the recent protests, he added: “I am not condoning all this other stuff but I understand why people are doing what they are doing.”