Oscar winner Spike Lee is New York royalty, therefore, it is fitting that he would release a film to pay tribute to the Big Apple, which has been hit hard by COVID-19.
Lee, 63, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday (May 7), “It’s painful when you see there is nobody there. But at the end of the film, that is when we see New Yorkers.” 

He also added, “I wouldn’t want to be any other place than here, the epicenter.”

The Do the Right Thing director also talked about how the coronavirus has impacted Black communities.

“I think that after we get into AC, after corona, we have to change things top to bottom. We cannot go back to doing this stuff that happened before — healthcare, education, the environment. We got to just, hopefully with the new president, that we got to go back to the chalkboard and just really rethink everything in America from top to bottom.”
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He continued, “The epidemic has really pulled, like the Wizard of Oz, pulled back the veil. Now we see what is really here. That is what corona has done.”
Lee’s short film is titled New York, New York and set to Frank Sintara’s 1979 cover of  "Theme from New York, New York," which was originally recorded by Liza Milenni in 1977.
Watch the short Spike Lee Joint below: 

For the latest on the coronavirus, check out BET’s blog on the virus, and contact your local health department or visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.