Spike Lee to mark 20th anniversary of 9/11 with HBO documentary

Academy Award-winning filmmaker and inveterate New Yorker Spike Lee is producing and directing an HBO documentary series about New York City in the nearly 20 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"NYC Epicenters 9/11→2021½" will chronicle "life, loss and survival … of New Yorkers as they rebuild and rebound, from a devastating terrorist attack through the ongoing global pandemic," the subscription-cable network said Monday. Already in production, the series is scheduled to debut this year on HBO and stream on HBO Max.

"As a New Yawker who bleeds orange and blue (the colors of New York City), I'm proud to have a 'Spike Lee Joint' about how our/my city dealt with being the epicenters of 9/11 and COVID-19," Lee, 63, who earned Emmys as both director and a producer of HBO's 2007 Hurricane Katrina documentary "When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," said in a statement.

He added, "With over 200 interviews, we dig deep into what makes NYC the greatest city on this God's earth and also the diverse citizens who make it so. Over centuries pundits and straight haters have proclaimed NYC was dead and stinkin', only to be proved wrong. You will lose ya money betting against New York, New York."