Spike Lee’s New Docuseries Prompts ‘Questions’ About 9/11

Two decades later, Spike Lee is exploring what happened on September 11, 2001.

The famed New York director, whose docuseries NYC Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021½ explores the city’s darkest day and provides access to those who were involved. In an interview with the The New York Times, Lee says “people [are] going to make up their own mind” about the 2001 terrorist attack and should “decide for themselves” what happened that day.

Lee’s docuseries features interviews with members of the conspiracy group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. He implied to the Times that he isn’t satisfied by the official explanation about what happened that infamous day.

“I hope that maybe the legacy of this documentary is that Congress holds a hearing, a congressional hearing about 9/11,” Lee said. “The amount of heat that it takes to make steel melt, that temperature’s not reached. And then the juxtaposition of the way Building 7 fell to the ground — when you put it next to other building collapses that were demolitions, it’s like you’re looking at the same thing.”

“My approach is put the information in the movie and let people decide for themselves. I respect the intelligence of the audience,” Lee added.

However, there has been official information available to the public for years. In 2004 the bipartisan 9-11 Commission released a lengthy official report detailing what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 ranging from the terrorist scheme involving al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and several others involved in the attack to how they raised the money to conduct it. This includes how terrorists prepared for the attack and how the locations for it were scouted out. Further,in 2005 the National Institute of Standards and Technology released the findings of its investigation determining from an architectural and engineering perspective what caused the World Trade Center to collapse.

But Lee feels that “people are going to think what they think,” he told the Times. “People have called me a racist for “Do the Right Thing.” People said in “Mo’ Better Blues” I was antisemitic. “She’s Gotta Have It,” that was misogynist. People are going to just think what they think. And you know what? I’m still here, going on four decades of filmmaking.

NYC Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021½ is a four-part docuseries produced by Lee’s film company 40 Acres and a Mule. It premiered on August 22 on HBO and HBO Max. More than 200 interviews were conducted for the series, including first responders, politicians, journalists and celebrities like Rosie Perez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jon Stewart.