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Posts tagged as “Spike Lee”

Brooklyn Honors Spike Lee With "Do the Right Thing" Day

By goodblacknews on June 27, 2014

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Spike Lee’s breakthrough film “Do the Right Thing” put Brooklyn on the cinematic map, and now the city is returning the favor by declaring June 30 “Do the Right Thing Day.”
Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams made the proclamation on Tuesday, on the 25th anniversary of Lee’s seminal film. The celebration includes a block party this Saturday in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the neighborhood in which Do the Right Thing is set. On Sunday, Brooklyn’s BAMcinématek will kick off a 10-day retrospective of Lee’s films.
Check out our exclusive interview with Spike Lee right here.
“Many people don’t realize how profound and powerful the movie ‘Do the Right Thing’ actually was,” said Adams during the ceremony. “Spike created an image of Brooklyn that was beyond the headlines, beyond the stereotyping, beyond the negative images.”
The 1989 film, which was nominated for two Oscars, traced one hot day on a Bedford-Stuyvesant block as long-simmering racial tensions boil over and a cast of characters including Lee as Mookie and the late Ruby Dee as Mother Sister struggle to endure the rising mercury.
article by Evelyn Diaz via bet.com

Spike Lee Film Retrospective Coming to Brooklyn in June

By goodblacknews on May 29, 2014

Spike Lee is bringing it back to where it all began. BAMcinématek in Brooklyn, New York, will host a retrospective of the homegrown auteur’s films in a series titled By Any Means Necessary: A Spike Lee Joints Retrospective. The program will run for twelve days, from June 29-July 10, and showcase Lee’s classic works and even some of his rarely-seen films.

BAM’s series will even include a screening of Lee’s least-seen film, his NYU Master’s thesis Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. The filmmaker’s most popular film, Do the Right Thing, will be the closing night film and will be attended by Lee and the cast.
Tickets for the full program are scheduled to go on sale soon, but passes for Do the Right Thing are available now for museum members.  Lee is a true American auteur whose films defined a generation and made Brooklyn a mecca for artists. Fans will surely relish this rare opportunity to see his (almost) complete body of work.
article by Evelyn Diaz via BET.com

Spike Lee To Adapt His Feature "She’s Gotta Have It" As Series For Showtime

By goodblacknews on May 15, 2014

She's_Gotta_Have_It_film_posterSpike Lee is revisiting his debut feature, 1985′s She’s Gotta Have It, on the small screen. Showtime has put in development a half-hour series adaptation that updates the film, with Lee set to write and attached to direct. The project is taking a new, contemporary look at the characters and willspike leeexplore Lee’s unique and provocative points of view about race, gender, sexuality, relationships, and the gentrification in Brooklyn.

Showtime is a fitting home for the project as the pay cable network has built a whole slate of half-hour series that straddle comedy and drama in the tone of She’s Gotta Have It.

Lee made his breakthrough with She’s Gotta Have It, which he shot in 12 days during the summer of ’85 on a budget of $175,000.  The film, starring Tracy Camilla Johns as a young, sexually independent Brooklynite who juggles three suitors (Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Lee), ended up grossing $7,137,502 at the U.S. box office. It helped usher in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and paved the way for other black filmmakers.

article by Nellie Andreeva via Deadline.com

American Black Film Festival Moves from Miami to New York With "Think Like a Man" Sequel and Spike Lee Film

By goodblacknews on May 14, 2014

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Romany Malco and Meagan Good in “Think Like a Man Too.” (Screen Gems)

The 18th edition of the American Black Film Festival will make its New York debut next month with films directed by Tim Story and Spike Lee bookending the June 19-22 event, organizers announced last week.
The festival, which promotes work by and about people of African descent, is presented by Film Life, a New York City-based entertainment company. The Miami area was home to the festival for most of its existence. Now, Jeff Friday, the festival’s founder and Film Life chief executive, said in a phone interview that he hoped the move will be a permanent one, with the goal of reaching a larger, more diverse audience.
“Last year proved if nothing else, that black films can be more mainstream,” Mr. Friday said. “We want to encourage audiences to consume, ingest and enjoy black cinema as much as multicultural audiences enjoy other forms of black culture.”

Short Film "Black Girl in Paris" by Kiandra Parks Heads to HBO

By goodblacknews on March 3, 2014

Black Girl In ParisBased on the novel by Shay Youngblood, Black Girl in Paris is written and directed by Kiandra Parks and stars Tracey Heggins (Medicine for Melancholy) as a down-on-her-luck writer who experiences personal and sexual awakening thanks to a savvy prostitute, played by Zaraah Abrahams (who is also in Spike Lee‘s upcoming Da Sweet Blood of Jesus).
After filming in 2012 and touring the festival circuit in 2013, winning the American Black Film Festival’s Short Film Award, the twenty-minute movie is now available to view on HBOGo through March 31st.
article by Jai Tigget via ShadowAndAct.com

Black & Sexy TV's Web Series "The Couple" Gets HBO Deal

By goodblacknews on January 26, 2014

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Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison star in “The Couple”

Aficionados of Black cinema and television arts are ecstatic about the announcement of a TV deal involving Black & Sexy TV’s hit web series The Couple and powerhouse cable television network HBO. Rumor has it the deal will also involve legendary filmmaker Spike Lee as an executive producer. Black & Sexy co-creator Numa Perrier recently confirmed to JETmag.com that the Web superstars did clinch a deal with HBO.
News first leaked Monday at Sundance Film Festival during the Blackhouse Digital Panel, which included Black & Sexy TV founders Dennis Dortch and Numa Perrier, actor Jay Ellis (The Game), Lena Waithe (Dear White People), Edwin Benton and was moderated by Brickson Diamond. The deal was revealed while Diamond and Dortch discussed the task of how to maneuver creative content to new platforms.
For those unfamiliar, the Black & Sexy TV original web series, starring Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison, follows a young Black couple, chronicling the everyday nuances of dating and living together in a hilariously fresh way. Some may recall the unprecedented 2012 Kickstarter campaign that surpassed an original $25,000 goal to raise more than $32,000 in an effort to turn the web series into a film.
Black & Sexy TV offers original programming that is intentionally and unapologetically for us and is responsible for creating breakout web series hits such as Roomieloverfriends—which is also produced by Awkward Black Girl’s Issa Rae, That Guy and a new docu-series Yellow, which explores the “pleasures and problems of the light skinned Black man.”
The development deal with HBO is said to still be in its early stages.
article by Marissa Wallace via jetmag.com

Director Spike Lee Reaches Kickstarter Goal of $1.25 Million for New Film

By goodblacknews on August 16, 2013

Spike Lee speaks onstage during the 'Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truthts' panel discussion at the HBO portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour - Day 2 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 25, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Spike Lee speaks during the ‘Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truths’ panel discussion at the HBO portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour – on July 25, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Spike Lee has surpassed his Kickstarter goal of $1.25 million, with 4 days remaining in his campaign.  The 56-year-old director launched his campaign on July 21, in an effort to raise money to make his next film. Lee describes the movie as a “psychological bloody thriller,” about human beings who are addicted to blood (and not a remake of Blacula).  Since launching his campaign 26 days ago, Lee as amassed more than 5,400 financial backers, (including Magic Mike director Steven Soderbergh) and raised $1,304,000.
But Lee’s Kickstarter campaign wasn’t a seamless endeavor.  The Do the Right Thing director generated strong criticism from the media. Weeks ago Lee made an appearance on Bloomberg TV’s Street Smart and had a heated debate about the backlash he’s received for using Kickstarter.  During an interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon, Lee talked about his reason for using Kickstarter.
“I needed to go to Kickstarter to get this film made because this is not necessarily a Hollywood film, Lee said. “It’s more like an independent film.”  The 56-year-old Brooklyn native then said he doesn’t envision his contemporaries in the industry, like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg or Clint Eastwood, following in his footsteps and turning to Kickstarter to fund their future films.  “Anybody could do this, but Steven Spielberg,” Lee said. “Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Scorsese, they don’t have to do that.” Why? “Because they don’t have to do it,” he said. “They’re great filmmakers and they’re beloved by the studios.”
Lee’s next film, which is scheduled to hit theaters in October, will be his remake of the Korean thriller Oldboy.
article by Chris Witherspoon via thegrio.com

Steven Soderbergh Donates $10,000 To Spike Lee Kickstarter Because Lee Inspired Him To Direct

By goodblacknews on July 30, 2013
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh (Charles Eshelman/Getty Images)
Spike Lee
Spike Lee

Days after it was revealed Steven Soderbergh donated $10,000 to Spike Lee‘s Kickstarter campaign, the Magic Mike and Behind the Candelabra director explained why he offered such massive financial support.
Lee was one of three independent American filmmakers, with David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch, who inspired Soderbergh in the ’80s, a time in which he otherwise “felt like the sense of what was possible had shrunk,” Soderbergh wrote on Lee’s Kickstarter page.
“These were distinctive new voices, and the freedom (and success) they represented was liberating and energizing; these were shoulders I would try to stand on, that I would be proud to stand on,” he explains.
Soderbergh continues to praise Lee, writing: “Certain filmmakers exist outside the traditional parameters of criticism; their point of view and body of work make discussions about individual films interesting but ultimately irrelevant because each project is merely a chapter in a very long book that must (and will) be acknowledged and appreciated for its breadth, ambition, and contributions to the art of cinema. For me, Spike Lee is one of those filmmakers. He is a totally unique figure in American cinema, and he’s always gone his own way and spoken his mind (even when the commercial stakes were high), qualities which are in short supply in the film business.”
In closing, Soderbergh reiterates that he’s supporting a friend whose films he admires and who paved the way for his own success. He also notes that he’s hoping — through the Knicks game he’s been promised for his pledge — to get to know Lee better as a person.  Lee’s Kickstarter for a movie that he describes as a “funny,” “sexy” and “bloody” picture has so far raised $403,546 of its $1.25 million goal from 1,989 backers (including 21 at the $10,000 maximum level). There are 22 days left for the campaign to meet its fundraising target.
article by Hilary Lewis via hollywoodreporter.com

Spike Lee Joins Kickstarter: Seeks $1.25 Million | Variety

By goodblacknews on July 22, 2013

spike-leeSpike Lee has turned to Kickstarter to raise $1.25 million in funds for his next film. The filmmaker said the project will focus on human beings who are addicted to blood. “Funny, sexy, and bloody (and it’s not “Blacula”),” he added. Lee appealed to potential supporters by touting the film as counter to the current high-priced tentpoles.
via Spike Lee Joins Kickstarter: Seeks $1.25 Million | Variety

‘Fruitvale Station’ Bows Strong Amid Trayvon Martin Reaction

By goodblacknews on July 14, 2013
‘Fruitvale Station’ Bows Strong Amid Trayvon Martin Reaction
The opening of Fruitvale Station on the same weekend as the Trayvon Martin trial concluded was certainly not planned on purpose. But the similarity of the two high-profile shootings was a potent reminder for the Weinstein Co. pickup, which scored the weekend’s highest per-screen average of nearly $54,000 from seven locations, including the sold-out Grand Lake theater in Oakland, Calif.
“Obviously, we had no idea of what would be going on at the time we dated the movie, but it’s very topical,” said Weinstein distribution topper Erik Lomis, referring to Saturday’s acquittal of Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watchman,  in Sanford, Fla.  “It’s hard to watch this film and not be moved,” Lomis added.
Fruitvale Station is based on the true story of Oscar Grant, a young African-American man in Oakland, who was shot and killed by a BART police officer in 2009.  The film, which stars Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer, sold out Friday night and Saturday evening screenings at the Oakland location, as well as at the Arclight Hollywood and the Angelika in New York.