And when young filmmakers come to you for advice, what do you tell them?
#SPIKE LEE ALL STAR GAME 2022 MOVIE#
I have all the pictures of - movie posters and stuff - of my pantheon. And I look at them every day in my office here. So there were a whole lot of people who inspired me. I mean, there’s a ton of people - and not necessarily in film. Who inspired you? Who was a mentor, whether in film, or just in general?įor me, I have to go to the grandfather of cinema - Black cinema - Oscar Micheaux. I did not stop making films after “ Do the Right Thing” when motherf-ing “Driving Miss Daisy” won. What are you going to do? I mean, I was mad, you know? But it was no need for me to hold that in. I won’t be the first that didn’t win that should have. I mean, it’s obvious with the body of work. Well, I mean, I wasn’t giving it back! The people know what the deal was. How do you think about that recognition, and what does it mean to you to be recognized by the Academy? But it wasn’t as a director, for which you’re known. I wanted to build a body of work and not just be a one-and-done, a flash in the pan. But the spirit - whatever you want to call it - let me go see Vietta, see what she’s doing.īut once I started, I wanted to do this. I mean, the whole summer up to that point, we were just sitting on our stoop playing Strat-O-Matic baseball.
Because if I had not gone to see Vietta that particular day, my life would be completely different.
That’s when, I say a lot of times, that film chose me. I shot all this stuff on a Super 8 camera given to me by a friend. So I just spent the whole summer shooting stuff on a Super 8 camera: the blackout, first summer of disco in New York. The summer of 1977, New York City was broke, so there weren’t any summer jobs. Herb Eichelberger, who encouraged me to make a documentary out of the footage I had shot summer. You can’t do that.Īnd I had a film professor, Dr. You can’t make any money - especially being an artist. I think the biggest reason why parents can have a negative effect on their children is when they kill their children’s dreams. I’m a perfect example of how parents can influence their children. But my father loved sports, so he was taking me to Shea Stadium, Madison Square Garden. So I was my mother’s movie date - I’m the first child. My late mother was a cinephile, so she would take me to films. So you might say the seeds were planted there. The following is based on two conversations, which have been edited and condensed.Īdvertisement Can you talk about what shaped your desire to become a filmmaker? When did that first take root? Lee’s company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, is based in his home borough, “ Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn,” and he lives in Manhattan with his family. Through his bold and provocative storytelling, Lee has been an important voice on race, racism and other social issues for three decades, and he will receive the Director’s Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in March. Spike Lee, 64, is an award-winning filmmaker, cultural icon, social critic and die-hard New York Knicks fan whose career includes directing, producing, writing and acting in feature and documentary films, most recently the HBO documentary “NYC Epicenters: 9/11➔2021½.” His vast body of work - close to 40 films - has won numerous awards, including an Academy Award (best adapted screenplay) for “BlacKkKlansman” and an Emmy Award for the documentary “When the Levees Broke.” Lee’s book “ SPIKE,” a career-spanning monograph of his work and life, was released in late 2021.
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