![]() The film only earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Spike Lee's first Oscar nomination, and for Best Supporting Actor for Danny Aiello. To many people's surprise, the film was not nominated for Best Picture or Best Director at the Academy Awards. Ebert later added the film to his list of The Great Movies. The film gained critical acclaim as one of the best films of the year from film critics including both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert who ranked the film as the best of 1989, and later in their top 10 films of the decade (No. 6 for Siskel and No. 4 for Ebert). The film's cast included Lee, Danny Aiello, Bill Nunn, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, John Turturro, Martin Lawrence and Samuel L. In 1989, Lee made perhaps his most seminal film, Do the Right Thing, which focused on a Brooklyn neighborhood's simmering racial tension on a hot summer day. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in the representation of blacks in American cinema, depicting men and women of color not as pimps and whores, but as intelligent, upscale urbanites." Scott wrote that the film "ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7 million at the U.S. ![]() Lee wrote, directed, produced, starred and edited the film with a budget of $175,000, he shot the film in two weeks. The film was Lee's first feature-length film that launched Lee's career. The film filmed in black-and-white, concerns a young woman (Johns) who is seeing three men, and the feelings this arrangement provokes. In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It. Lee's father, Bill Lee, composed the score. The film was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Center's New Directors New Films Festival. Dickerson worked on the film as assistant director and cinematographer, respectively. Lee submitted the film as his master's degree thesis at the Tisch School of the Arts. In 1983, Lee premiered his film independent short film titled, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. He did graduate work at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film and television.Ĭareer Main article: Spike Lee filmography 1980s He took film courses at Clark Atlanta University and graduated with a B.A. Lee enrolled in Morehouse College, a historically black college, where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn. He attended John Dewey High School in Brooklyn's Gravesend neighborhood. His mother nicknamed him "Spike" during his childhood. When he was a child, the family moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn, New York. Lee has three younger siblings, Joie, David, and Cinqué, each of whom has worked in many different positions in Lee's films. 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. ![]() Lee's films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, 4 Little Girls and She's Gotta Have It were each selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". He has also received an Academy Honorary Award, an Honorary BAFTA Award, an Honorary César, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. He has won numerous accolades for his work, including an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Student Academy Award, a BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, two Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and the Cannes Grand Prix. Lee's work has continually explored race relations, colorism in the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. He has since written and directed such films as Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), 25th Hour (2002), Inside Man (2006), Chi-Raq (2015), BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Da 5 Bloods (2020). He made his directorial debut with She's Gotta Have It (1986). His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. Shelton Jackson " Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and professor.
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