Director of Nina Simone Documentary Calls Zoe Saldana Film "Ugly and Inaccurate"

Nina, the Nina Simone biopic starring Zoe Saldana, has drummed up plenty of controversy, especially since the first trailer was released two weeks ago. The film has faced harsh criticism—most notably from Simone's estate—for choosing to cast Saldana, a light-skinned actress, in the lead role, with critics such as the Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coateswriting that, "there is something deeply shameful in the fact that even today a young Nina Simone would have a hard time being cast in her own biopic." When the trailer was released, Robert L. Johnson, founder of RLJ Entertainment and BET, issued a statement defending Saldana and the film, and now Jeff Lieberman, who directed a documentary about Simone's life called The Amazing Nina Simone, has issued one of his own staunchly disagreeing with Johnson.

"Robert Johnson's defense of his film Nina was not only insulting, it was 100 percent wrong," Lieberman writes in the Hollywood Reporter. "I am saddened by the ugly and inaccurate portrayal contained in the script and trailer of Nina and by Mr. Johnson's desperate attempt to defend the project. Since Mr. Johnson is a black man who lived through the 1960s, I am surprised he does not know what Nina Simone stood for, both for herself and for the hundreds of thousands of people she inspired along the way."

He goes on to say that Saldana's casting is only half the problem—the real issue, he says, is that the film chooses to focus not on Simone's accomplishments, but on the last tumultuous years of her life:

Lieberman is right—the chatter around casting Saldana has drowned out any mention of why the film's director chose to focus on Simone's degeneration rather than her achievements. Critics have yet to weigh in, but the controversy is sure to heat up as the film's April 22 release date draws nearer.