Spike Lee Throws Michael Jackson a Birthday Party and Defends the Biopic That Skips 1993

Spike Lee’s free Michael Jackson block party returns to Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn on Aug. 29, the day Jackson would have turned 68. It runs noon to 7 p.m. with DJ Spinna on the decks and Jordan Brand sponsoring, according to theGrio. Admission is free.

Lee is not a celebrity guest at this thing. He directed Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” video, made two feature documentaries about him, and cut the posthumous “This Is It” clip. He is also, this year, the biopic’s most visible defender. That combination is new.

Related: Michael Jackson Would Turn 68 as a $1 Billion Biopic Reshapes How Fans See His Life

Three Decades of Making the Case

The documentaries are Bad 25 in 2012 and Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall in 2016, both built around the music rather than the tabloids, per EURweb.

“I miss Mike. I miss Prince. These are my brothers. I worked with both of them. Both beautiful, beautiful people,” Lee said on CNN’s Laura Coates Live in May.

Related: Michael Jackson Would Turn 68 as a $1 Billion Biopic Reshapes How Fans See His Life

Why He Is Defending the Movie That Stops in 1988

Michael, the Antoine Fuqua biopic starring Jaafar Jackson, crossed $1 billion worldwide this summer, Variety reported — the first biopic ever to do it. It ends in 1988, five years before the first allegations surfaced.

“I’ve seen it twice. Love it,” Lee told CNN. “You’re critiquing the film on something that you want in, but it doesn’t work in the timeline of the film. The stuff you’re talking about, accusations, happen later,” he said.

The omission was not purely a timeline call. The original third act covered the 1993 accusations but was cut after filmmakers learned they were legally barred from depicting the accuser’s family, and reshoots reportedly ran $40 million to $50 million, Forbes reported.

Not everyone in the family agrees with Lee. Paris Jackson wrote on Instagram that the film “panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

Jackson denied the allegations throughout his life and was acquitted on all counts in 2005. Lee’s answer to the argument is a free party, a DJ and seven hours of music.

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