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Welcome back. spike lee's new movie "chi-raq" has been called everything from a collage of provocation and fury to a shattering thunderous wakeup alarm. the warning, though, he is trying to ring is one about guns in america. and while the pew research center says gun violence has declined since the 1990s, the backdrop to the senseless violence depicted in lee's film is the city of chicago where, according to the "chicago tribune," there have been almost 3,000 shooting victims this year alone, including a police shooting that left two people dead early saturday morning. but it's not just police...

When they see me, athey what is wrong with your country. and, like, we have a line in the film "chi-raq" that's brought up. it's said if nothing is happened after sandy hook, what's it going to take? >> and yet, you manage to tackle this issue, as raw it is, with a certain amount of humor -- >> satire. >> even better. you have taken, as the basis, the story, the fifth century bc greek comedy about women in greece who had a sex strike to force their warrior husbands to lay down their swords and stop the war. >> swords and knives and clubs. >> you see? to put down their weapons. >> my co-writer,...

She performed one of the women. that's top when you go there for drama. >> like me, and english accent. >> i always kid about that. i went to juliard. i'm kidding. but many of the people have strong theater backgrounds that come from that, so they've done that play in high school or college. >> barack obama took michelle on a first date to your film, do the right thing. >> michael jordan, tomorrow. >> come on. get him out. >> i'm trying to get him out. >> they went to discuss the movie. michelle might have had ice cream, i don't know. >> it's been a rocky road ever since in terms of race relat...

>> and i'm glad you said that. i don't want anybody that sees the film or seeing me talking to you to think that what's happening only takes place in chicago. my wife gave me a good thought. she said chicago is like the canary in the coal mine. gun violence affects not just hispanic and african americans in the hoods of this country. gun violence affects everybody. 88 americans die every day due to gun violence, and it's not just black or hispanic. it's everybody. it's all of us, as americans. >> and you have some chilling statistics in the film. it's called "chi-raq." so chicago, iraq. you sa...

At first. we tried to get this done six years ago, and there's one thing i sure of now, everything is timing. it wasn't time for this film six years ago. the powers that be, the spirits, whatever, they said not now. do it later. we couldn't have picked a better time to do this film, "chi-raq." >> tell me about the women aspect of it. you give a lot of power to women's power. shut down their sexual favors. >> i can't take the credit. i have to give it up to my mai , man, the greek play write. >> what did you cast think? had they heard about it? >> many of them had done it in theater. the lead a...