Spike Lee: Coolin' that s**t out!

In case you haven't heard yet, Spike Lee is going to be on BSC campus on Wednesday, Feb. 13th, at 7 pm.  Tickets are free but need to be picked up at the Info Booth @ the RCC.  If you're in one of my classes this semester, you'll be hearing about it for sure--extra credit even!  Like Da Mayor says: always do the right thing. In my COMM 300 class, we are revisiting Malcolm X (1992), but any student can go get the link for the digitized stream for Do the Right Thing (1989) at the Circulation Desk @ Maxwell, and watch that on your laptop (ditto Malcolm X).

Here's a gratuitous list of another half-dozen additional Spike Lee films you'd be well to check out--preferably before the filmmaker arrives on campus (nothing like an informed Q & A session, that's all I'm saying). I bet you could come up with your own list of six different titles...In fact, drop me a comment and build on this:

1. When the Levees Broke (2006) A four-hour documentary on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Incredibly hard to think that it was only 2 1/2 years ago....But it has to have felt like several lifetimes for those whose lives have been directly affected. His most recent full-length project, originally produced for HBO, and now out on DVD.

2. Inside Man (2006) This film was widely praised as a throwback to Classical Hollywood caper films--I kind of think some critics loved it so much because it didn't have the stamp of a Spike Lee film. Or so they say. Taut and full of momentum, this is his most recent film to get wide theatrical release.

3. Bamboozled (2000) A scathing critique of media representation of race, and our complicity with it in any number of capacities. Sure, the plot goes off the rails in the final reel, but still: a number of jaw-dropping moments, including a heartbreaking historical montage.

4. Clockers (1995) I remember seeing this one in the theater multiple times, thinking how Lee was taking his work to a new level of thoughtfulness and introspection. This is a story of circumstance and what one man does to try to write his own ticket....to Arizona.

5. 25th Hour (2002) This was one of the first cinematic reckonings with 9/11 that I remember--and still one of the most poignant.

6. Michael Jordan Nike Campaign Run a web search and you're bound to find some examples out there. Lee brought his "Mars Blackman" character that he developed in his NYU diploma film / theatrical debutShe's Gotta Have It (1986), and paired it with the generation's most iconic sports personality. It's gotta be the shoes!