'Chi-Raq' Star Angela Bassett on Chicago Violence

Spike Lee‘s controversial film “Chi-Raq” is set to arrive in theaters just as Chicago makes headlines for another horrifying shooting.

“Chi-Raq,” a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes, is set against the backdrop of soaring gang violence in Chicago. The Amazon Studios release debuts on Dec. 4 in select theaters, and will then be available on Amazon Instant Video shortly thereafter.

Lee’s satirical take on gun violence stars John Cusack, Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson and Angela Bassett.

Also Read: 'Chi-Raq' Review: Spike Lee Spins Sexual Satire Into Searing Commentary

In a recent sit-down with TheWrap, Bassett expressed her outrage over the bloodshed in Chicago.

“It’s shameful, completely and utterly wasteful, shameful, hurtful to the core,” she said.

The actress’ comments come as the city is thrust into the spotlight once again.

Also Read: Video of Chicago Police Officer Shooting Teen 16 Times Sparks Social Media Outcry

On Tuesday, protesters took to the streets after city leaders released a chilling dash-cam video showing a police officer firing 16 shots at 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. The fatal shooting happened on Oct. 20, 2014, but the footage was not made public until a judge ordered it released. It showed a white police officer continuing to fire on the black teen even as he lay slumped on the ground.

The release of the footage came less than a month after 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was assassinated on the city’s South Side. Police said the fourth grader was lured into an alley and shot multiple times on Nov. 2, as he walked to a local park to play basketball. The little boy was apparently targeted because of his father’s alleged association with a local gang.

As of this week, 2,703 people have been shot in the city and 440 have died so far this year, according to the Chicago Tribune. That is far higher than the number of homicides in New York and Los Angeles, which have larger populations.

Also Read: Spike Lee Blames Social Media for Skyrocketing Gun Violence in Chicago

Lee and the team behind “Chi-Raq” have faced criticism from Chicago city leaders for the film’s title. But Bassett said rather than trying to make the city look bad, the director, who recently received an honorary Academy Award, is trying to make a difference.

“He’s trying to just bring some awareness… It’s a good picture, it’s very positive,” she explained.

“I wasn’t familiar with the name ‘Chi-Raq’ as a nickname for Chicago based on what’s been going on in the community with young black men, children… innocent bystanders dying because of gang violence, and the nickname ‘Chi-Raq’ coming from more black folks dying than in the Iraq war,” Bassett said.

Also Read: Angela Bassett on Playing a Badass in 'Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege' (Video)

She went on to explain that the politicians’ criticism may be rooted in embarrassment over what is happening in their city.

“Sometimes you don’t want those outside the family to know that’s what’s going on, but it’s something that needs to be known,” she said. “When you get down to it, Spike loves his community. He loves filmmaking, so it’s going to be a positive thing. It’s for the good.”

Watch the video of Bassett’s interview above.

21 Times Hollywood Tackled Race Issues (Photos)

Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.
Harpo Films/ Plan B Entertainment
Dear White People (2014) - This biting satire follows four black college students making their way in "post-racial" America.
Homegrown Pictures
12 Years a Slave (2013) - Chiwetel Ejiofor led the 2014 Best Picture winner, which is a true story about a freeborn black man who spent over a decade in slavery in the pre-Civil War South.
Fox
Django Unchained (2012) - Quentin Tarantino's controversial Oscar winner follows a freed slave who fights to liberate his wife from a brutal plantation owner.
The Weinstein Co.
Gran Torino (2008) - Clint Eastwood plays a grizzled Korean War veteran who reluctantly takes his young Hmong neighbor under his wing.
Warner Bros.
Crash (2004) - 2006's Best Picture Winner traces the intersecting lives of people of different races in present day Los Angeles.
Bob Yari Productions
American History X (1998) - Edward Norton plays the leader of a violent neo-Nazi gang who reevaluates his life when he sees his little brother going down the same path.
New Line
A Time to Kill (1996) - Based on the best-selling John Grisham novel, Samuel L. Jackson plays a man on trial for murdering the two white supremacists who raped his daughter who turns to an untested lawyer played by Matthew McConaughey.
Warner Bros.
Schindler's List (1993) - Steven Spielberg's unflinching look at the Holocaust through the eyes of a man who saved thousands of Polish Jews.
Universal
Malcolm X (1992) - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington teamed up for the true story of the inflammatory Nation of Islam leader.
Warner Bros.
School Ties (1992) - Brendan Fraser led this all-star cast (which included Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) in which he played tbe only Jewish student at an exclusive 1950's prep school.
Paramount
Boyz n the Hood (1991) - John Singleton's hard-hitting look at life in South Central Los Angeles saw Cuba Gooding Jr. trying to avoid the pitfalls of life in the ghetto.
Columbia Pictures
Dances with Wolves (1990) - Kevin Costner won multiple Oscars for this tale of a Civil War soldier who comes to identify with an oppressed native tribe in the American West.
Orion Pictures
Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee's searing portrait of a day in the life of a mostly black Brooklyn neighborhood during an intense heat wave.
Universal
Mississippi Burning (1988) - The true story of the disappearance of three civil rights protesters in 1960's Mississippi and the FBI agents who investigated.
Orion Pictures
The Color Purple (1985) - Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for Best Actress in this story of a black woman at the turn of the century fighting for her place in society.
Amblin
Blazing Saddles (1974) - Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor collaborated on this hysterical look at a black sheriff taking charge of a frontier town.
Warner Bros.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - Sidney Poitier stars in this groundbreaking film about a white woman who brings her black fiancee home to meet her parents.
Columbia Pictures
In the Heat of the Night (1967) - Sidney Poitier again challenged conventions when he portrayed a black detective investigating a murder in a rural Southern town.
United Artists
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Gregory Peck cemented his place in film history as Atticus Finch, a white lawyer defending a black man accused of rape, in the adaptation of Harper Lee's masterpiece.
Universal
Birth of a Nation (1915) - Considered the first true narrative film, it attracted widespread criticism for its portrayal of African Americans and its glorification of the KKK.
D.W. Griffith

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The film industry has never shied away from the controversial topic

Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.

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21 Times Hollywood Tackled Race Issues (Photos)

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