Spike Lee
| Spike Lee | |
|---|---|
 Lee at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival | |
| Born | Shelton Jackson Lee (1957-03-20) March 20, 1957 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Residence | New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1977–present |
| Home town | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Board member of | 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks |
| Spouse(s) | Tonya Lewis (m. 1993) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | Bill Lee |
| Relatives |
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| Awards | Full list |
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.
He made his directorial debut with She's Gotta Have It (1986), and has since directed such films as Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), The Original Kings of Comedy (2000), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Chi-Raq (2015), and BlacKkKlansman (2018). Lee has also acted in ten of his own films.
Lee's films have examined race relations, colorism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. He has won numerous accolades for his work, including two Academy Award nominations, a Student Academy Award, and an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, an honorary BAFTA Award, an Honorary César, the 2013 Gish Prize, and a Grand Prix award.[1][2]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 Professor
2.2 Film
2.3 Commercials
3 Artistry
4 Personal life
5 Controversy
6 Filmography
7 Awards, honors and nominations
8 References
9 External links
Early life
Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the son of Jacqueline Carroll (née Shelton), a teacher of arts and black literature, and William James Edward Lee III, a jazz musician and composer.[3][4] Lee has three younger siblings, Joie, David, and Cinqué, who all worked in many different positions in Lee's films. Director Malcolm D. Lee is his cousin. When he was a child, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. His mother nicknamed him "Spike" during his childhood. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood.
Lee enrolled in Morehouse College, a historically black college, where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B.A. in mass communication from Morehouse. He did graduate work at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film & television.[5]
Career
Professor
In 1991, Lee taught a course at Harvard about filmmaking and in 1993 he began to teach at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Graduate Film Program. It was there that he received his Master of Fine Arts and was appointed Artistic Director in 2002.[6]
Film
Lee in 2007
Lee with his Peabody Award, 2011
Lee and his cast promoting BlacKkKlansman at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival
Lee's independent film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films Festival.
In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office.[7] Lee's 1989 film Do the Right Thing was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989. Many people, including Hollywood's Kim Basinger, believed that Do the Right Thing also deserved a Best Picture nomination. Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture that year. Lee said in an April 7, 2006 interview with New York magazine that the other film's success, which he thought was based on safe stereotypes, hurt him more than if his film had not been nominated for an award.[8]
After the 1990 release of Mo' Better Blues, Lee was accused of antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League and several film critics. They criticized the characters of the club owners Josh and Moe Flatbush, described as "Shylocks". Lee denied the charge, explaining that he wrote those characters in order to depict how black artists struggled against exploitation. Lee said that Lew Wasserman, Sidney Sheinberg or Tom Pollock, the Jewish heads of MCA and Universal Studios, were unlikely to allow antisemitic content in a film they produced. He said he could not make an antisemitic film because Jews run Hollywood, and "that's a fact".[9]
His 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls, about the children killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
On May 2, 2007, the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival honored Spike Lee with the San Francisco Film Society's Directing Award. In 2008, he received the Wexner Prize.[10] In 2013, he won The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the American arts worth $300,000.[11] In 2015, Lee received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his contributions to film.[12]
Lee directed, wrote, and produced the MyCareer story mode in the video game NBA 2K16.[13]
Lee's film BlacKkKlansman, a drama thriller set in the 1970s, won the Grand Prix at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and opened the following August.[14]
Commercials
In mid-1990, Levi's began producing a series of TV commercials directed by Lee for their 501 button fly jeans.[15]
Marketing executives from Nike[16] offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company. They wanted to pair Lee's character, the Michael Jordan–loving Mars Blackmon, and Jordan in a marketing campaign for the Air Jordan line. Later, Lee was called on to comment on the controversy surrounding the inner-city rash of violence involving youths trying to steal Air Jordans from other kids.[17] He said that, rather than blaming manufacturers of apparel that gained popularity, "deal with the conditions that make a kid put so much importance on a pair of sneakers, a jacket and gold".
Through the marketing wing of 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has directed commercials for Converse,[18]Jaguar,[19]Taco Bell,[20] and Ben & Jerry's.[21]
Artistry
Lee's films have examined race relations, colorism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues.[citation needed] His films are also noted for their unique stylistic elements, including the use of dolly shots to portray the characters "floating" through their surroundings, which has been used numerous times across Lee's filmography.[citation needed]
Lee's films are typically referred to as "Spike Lee Joints" and the closing credits always end with the phrases "By Any Means Necessary", "Ya Dig", and "Sho Nuff".[22] However, his 2013 film, Oldboy, used the traditional "A Spike Lee Film" credit after producers heavily re-edited it.[23]
Personal life
Lee met his wife, attorney Tonya Lewis, in 1992 and they were married a year later in New York.[24] They have one daughter, Satchel, born in 1994, and a son, Jackson, born in 1997.[25][26]
Spike Lee is a fan of the American baseball team the New York Yankees, basketball team the New York Knicks, and the English football team Arsenal.[27] One of the documentaries in ESPN's 30 for 30 series, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, focuses partly on Lee's interaction with Miller at Knicks games in Madison Square Garden.
In June 2003, Lee sought an injunction against Spike TV to prevent them from using his nickname.[28] Lee claimed that because of his fame, viewers would think he was associated with the new channel.[29][30]
When asked by the BBC if he believed in God, Lee said: "Yes. I have faith that there is a higher being. All this cannot be an accident."[31]
While Lee continues to maintain an office in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, he and his wife live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.[32]
Controversy
In May 1999, the New York Post reported that Lee made an inflammatory comment about Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association, while speaking to reporters at the Cannes Film Festival. Lee was quoted as saying the National Rifle Association should be disbanded and, of Heston, someone should "Shoot him with a .44 Bull Dog."[33][34] Lee said he intended it as a joke. He was responding to coverage about whether Hollywood was responsible for school shootings. "The problem is guns," he said.[35]Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey condemned Lee as having "nothing to offer the debate on school violence except more violence and more hate."[35]
Lee in September 2011
In October 2005, Lee responded to a CNN anchor's question as to whether the government intentionally ignored the plight of black Americans during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina catastrophe by saying, "It's not too far-fetched. I don't put anything past the United States government. I don't find it too far-fetched that they tried to displace all the black people out of New Orleans."[36] In later comments, Lee cited the government's past including the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.[37][38]
Lee speaking at a rally in support of the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders in Washington Square Park, April 2016
At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Lee, who was then making Miracle at St. Anna, about an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during World War II, criticized director Clint Eastwood for not depicting black Marines in his own World War II film, Flags of Our Fathers. Citing historical accuracy, Eastwood responded that his film was specifically about the Marines who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima, pointing out that while black Marines did fight at Iwo Jima, the U.S. military was racially segregated during World War II, and none of the men who raised the flag were black. He angrily said that Lee should "shut his face". Lee responded that Eastwood was acting like an "angry old man", and argued that despite making two Iwo Jima films back to back, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, "there was not one black soldier in both of those films".[39][40][41] He added that he and Eastwood were "not on a plantation."[42] Lee later claimed that the event was exaggerated by the media and that he and Eastwood had reconciled through mutual friend Steven Spielberg, culminating in his sending Eastwood a print of Miracle at St. Anna.[43]
In March 2012, after the shooting of Trayvon Martin, Spike Lee was one of many people who used Twitter to circulate a message that claimed to give the home address of the shooter George Zimmerman. The address turned out to be incorrect, causing the real occupants, Elaine and David McClain, to leave home and stay at a hotel due to numerous death threats.[44] Lee issued an apology and reached an agreement with the McClains which reportedly included "compensation", with their attorney stating "The McClains’ claim is fully resolved".[45][46] Nevertheless, in November 2013, the McClains filed a negligence lawsuit which accused Lee of "encouraging a dangerous mob mentality among his Twitter followers, as well as the public-at-large".[44][47] The lawsuit, which a court filing reportedly valued at $1.2 million, alleged that the couple suffered "injuries and damages" that continued after the initial settlement up through Zimmerman's trial in 2013.[44] A Seminole County judge dismissed the McClains' suit, agreeing with Lee that the issue had already been settled previously.[48]
Filmography
She's Gotta Have It (1986)
School Daze (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Mo' Better Blues (1990)
Jungle Fever (1991)
Malcolm X (1992)
Crooklyn (1994)
Clockers (1995)
Girl 6 (1996)
Get on the Bus (1996)
4 Little Girls (1997)
He Got Game (1998)
Summer of Sam (1999)
The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)
Bamboozled (2000)
Jim Brown: All-American (2002)
25th Hour (2002)
She Hate Me (2004)
Sucker Free City (2004)
Inside Man (2006)
When the Levees Broke (2006)
Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise (2010)
Red Hook Summer (2012)
Oldboy (2013)
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014)
Chi-Raq (2015)
Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall (2016)
She's Gotta Have It (2017–present)
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Awards, honors and nominations
In 1983, Lee won the Student Academy Award for his film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.[49] He won awards at the Black Reel Awards for Love and Basketball,[50] the Black Movie Awards for Inside Man, and the Berlin International Film Festival for Get on the Bus.[51]
He has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, but hasn't won; in November 2015, he was given the Academy Honorary Award for his contributions to filmmaking.[52]
Two of his films have competed for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, and of the two, BlacKkKlansman won the Grand Prix in 2018.[14]
References
^ "Spike Lee wins $300,000 Gish Prize". BBC News. Retrieved April 30, 2014..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "Spike Lee awarded $300,000 Gish Prize". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 30, 2014.
^ "Spike Lee Biography (1956?-)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
^ "7". Who Do You Think You Are?. Season 1. Episode 7. April 30, 2010. NBC.
^ "SHELTON "SPIKE" LEE '79". Morehouse College. April 9, 2012. Archived from the original on May 6, 2012. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
^ "Professor web page". NYU Tish Directory. NYU. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
^ "She's Gotta Have It (1986)". Box Office Mojo. August 26, 1986. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
^ Hill, Logan (April 7, 2008). "Q&A with Spike Lee on Making 'Do the Right Thing'". New York. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
^ James, Caryn (August 16, 1990). "Spike Lee's Jews and the Passage from Benign Cliche into Bigotry". The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
^ ""Spike Lee to Receive the Wexner Prize"; Wexner Center for the Arts". Wexarts.org. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
^ Chris Lee (September 18, 2013). "Spike Lee awarded $300,000 Gish Prize". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
^ "Spike Lee, Debbie Reynolds And Gena Rowlands To Receive Academy's 2015 Governors Awards". August 27, 2015.
^ Plunkett, Luke (June 4, 2015). "Spike Lee Is Writing A Video Game Campaign". Kotaku. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
^ ab Debruge, Peter (May 19, 2018). "Japanese Director Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'Shoplifters' Wins Palme d'Or at Cannes". Variety. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
^ Elliott, Stuart (July 22, 1991). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Advertising; Levi and Spike Lee Return In 'Button Your Fly' Part 2". The New York Times.
^ "Kindred, Dave; "Mars points NBA to next Milky Way – advertising character Mars Blackmon"; findarticles.com; July 21, 1997". Findarticles.com. July 21, 1997. Archived from the original on May 26, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
^ Chucksconnection.com Archived August 11, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
^ "Converse Splits With Butler". Retrieved February 15, 2018.
^ "Jaguar enlists Spike Lee to help diversify market". Retrieved February 15, 2018.
^ JOHNSON, GREG (July 7, 1995). "Basketball Stars Team Up for Taco Bell Ad Campaign : Marketing: Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon go one-on-one in television commercials that follow up provocative teasers in several papers". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
^ "BEN & JERRY'S & SPIKE & SMOOTH ICE CREAMS' FIRST BIG AD EFFORT BOASTS A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE". Retrieved February 15, 2018.
^ "Spike Lee Biography". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
^ Maane Khatchatourian (November 29, 2013). "'Oldboy' Will Likely Be Trampled by New Releases in Thanksgiving Rush". Variety. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
^ Rothkranz, Lindzy. "Tonya Lewis Lee, Spike's Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.
^ "Milestones". Time. December 19, 1994.
^ :am (October 27, 2009). "Black Celebrity Kids, babies, and their Parents » SPIKE LEE AND KIDS ATTEND MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT PREMIERE". Blackcelebkids.Com. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
^ "Arsenal Supporters Series: Spike Lee". Arsenal.theoffside.com. Archived from the original on December 2, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
^ Romano, Allison (April 21, 2003). "TNN Hopes Mainly Men Will Watch "Spike TV"s". Retrieved August 31, 2007.
^ Breaking... – 6/16/2003 – Broadcasting & Cable
^ "Spike sues over channel name". BBC News. June 4, 2003. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
^ Papamichael, Stella. "Calling the Shots: No.21: Spike Lee". BBC. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
^ "Real Estate 2001: Neighborhood Profiles".
^ "Spike Lee Says Remark About Shooting Heston Was A Joke – Chicago Tribune". Articles.chicagotribune.com. May 28, 1999. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
^ "Heston was always a man of his words – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. April 8, 2008. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
^ ab "Living foot to mouth". Salon.com. May 28, 1999. Archived from the original on June 23, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
^ Lee Won't Dismiss Theories Of A Flooding Conspiracy
^ "All about Spike Lee's latest film".
^ "Clip of Lee expressing his views of the Hurricane Katrina and Tuskegee matters on ''Real Time with Bill Maher''". Youtube.com. Retrieved June 13, 2011.
^ Marikar, Sheila (June 6, 2008). "Spike Strikes Back: Clint's 'an Angry Old Man'". ABC News.
^ "Eastwood hits back at Lee claims". BBC News. June 6, 2008. Retrieved August 4, 2009.
^ Lyman, Eric J. (May 21, 2008). "Lee calls out Eastwood, Coens over casting". The Hollywood Reporter (8): 3, 24.
^ Wainwright, Martin (June 9, 2008). "'We're not on a plantation, Clint'". The Guardian.
^ "Access Exclusive: Spike Lee On Clint Eastwood: 'We're Cool'" OMG!/Yahoo! September 6, 2008 Archived January 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
^ abc "Elderly Couple Sues Spike Lee Over Tweet". The Smoking Gun. November 8, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
^ "Spike Lee apologizes for retweeting wrong Zimmerman address". CNN. March 29, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
^ Muskal, Michael (March 29, 2012). "Trayvon Martin: Spike Lee settles with family forced to flee home". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
^ Colleen Curry (November 11, 2013). "Spike Lee Sued Over George Zimmerman Tweet". ABC News. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
^ TV, Centric. "Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Spike Lee Over George Zimmerman Tweet - What's Good - Entertainment - Articles - Centric".
^ "Student Film Award Winners" (PDF). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. p. 10. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 5, 2004. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
^ "Past Winners". Black Reel Awards. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
^ "Prizes & Honours 1997". Berlin International Film Festival. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
^ "Honorary Award". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spike Lee. |
Spike Lee on IMDb
Spike Lee on Twitter
Spike Lee on Charlie Rose
"Spike Lee collected news and commentary". The New York Times.
"Spike Lee collected news and commentary". The Guardian.
Appearances on C-SPAN
- Ubben Lecture at DePauw University
- Criterion Collection Essay on Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing
Lee's Lens Exposes Inequalities, but he's no Revolutionary by Brendan Kelly, Canwest, April 11, 2009
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