Staff Picks
22 Spike Lee Joints
- Keith B.
- Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Collection
For over 30 years Spike Lee has been entertaining and challenging us with his films. Take a look back over the accomplished career of our most prolific Black director from his first film She's Gotta Have it to his Oscar winning BlacKkKlansman.
4 Little Girls
A powerful documentary film that captures a time, a place, and a way of life that would be forever altered by the death of four little girls. A film by Spike Lee.
25th Hour
Published in 2003
Monty Brogan is facing a seven-year prison sentence for dealing drugs. On the night before he has to go to jail, he decides to go out with his friends one last time, and re-examines his life in the process.
Blackkklansman
Published in 2018
Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully managed to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local chapter.
Blackkklansman
Published in 2018
Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully managed to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local chapter.
Chi-raq
Published in 2016
Chi-Raq is a modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play 'Lysistrata' by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group of women led by Lysistrata organize against the on-going violence in Chicago's Southside creating a movement that challenges the nature of race, sex and violence in America and around the world.
Clockers
Published in 2002
In this film by Spike Lee, drug-dealers engage in a power struggle with their boss, even as the leader is suspected of murder.
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Published in 2015
Spike Lee's stylized thriller DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS is a new kind of love story. Dr. Hess Green (Stephen Tyrone Williams) becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a newfound thirst for blood. He however is not a vampire. Soon after his transformation he enters into a dangerous romance with Ganja Hightower (Zaraah Abrahams) that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status in our seemingly sophisticated society.
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Published in 2015
A new kind of love story. Dr. Hess Green becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a newfound thirst for blood. He however is not a vampire. Soon after his transformation he enters into a dangerous romance with Ganja Hightower that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status. -- Container.
Do the Right Thing
Published in 2001
Story of the racial tensions that surround a white-owned pizzeria in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn on the hottest day of the summer.
He Got Game
NBA talent Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics stars as the son who can save his father by choosing the 'Game.' A powerful story about a father's bid to reunite with his son.
If God is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise
Published in 2011
Directed by Spike Lee, this two-part, four hour documentary revisits New Orleans five years after Katrina, and four years since the premiere of Lee's landmark, triple Emmy-winning HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Featuring many of the principals seen in the first documentary, the new film opens with February's celebratory Super Bowl parade before delving into such issues as relocation, rebuilding, mental-health concerns, and more.
Inside Man
Published in 2006
The perfect bank robbery quickly spirals into an unstable and deadly game of cat-and-mouse between a criminal mastermind, a determined detective, and a power broker with a hidden agenda. One wrong move could mean disaster.
Kobe Doin' Work
Published in 2009
An unprecedented inside look at a day in the life of this basketball superstar as he prepares for one of the biggest games of the season, from the locker room to being on the court.
Malcolm X
Published in 2010
The life of Malcolm X, the black activist who became a Muslim and was a leader in the Nation of Islam until his assassination.
Miracle at St. Anna
Published in 2009
Four black American soldiers, who are members of the U.S. Army's all-black 92nd 'Buffalo Soldier' division stationed in Italy during World War II, find themselves trapped behind enemy lines after they risk their lives to save a young Italian boy.
Mo' Better Blues
Published in 2004
A jazz trumpeter obsessed with his music and indecisive about his girlfriends finds his life is fragile when he must come to the aid of his manager. A film by Spike Lee.
Oldboy
Published in 2014
An advertising executive is kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his punishment, only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.
Oldboy
Published in 2014
An advertising executive is kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his punishment, only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.
The Original Kings of Comedy
Published in 2017
A concert film featuring four major African American stand up comedians.
Passing Strange
Published in 2010
A young man leaves behind his mother and life in a Los Angeles neighborhood and sets out on a journey of self-discovery in Europe during the 1970s in order to find his purpose in life through his music. A theatrical stage production of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.
Red Hook Summer
Published in 2012
The latest in Spike Lee's Chronicles of Brooklyn series, RED HOOK SUMMER tells the story of Flik Royale, a young boy from Atlanta who has come to spend the summer with his religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse, in the housing projects of Red Hook. Between his grandfather's preaching and the culture shock of city life, Flik's summer appears to be a total disaster, until he meets Chazz Morningstar, a girl his age, who shows Flik the brighter side of Brooklyn.
Red Hook Summer
Published in 2012
The latest in Spike Lee's Chronicles of Brooklyn series, Red Hook Summer tells the story of Flik Royale, a young boy from Atlanta who has come to spend the summer with his religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse, in the housing projects of Red Hook. Between his grandfather's preaching and the culture shock of city life, Flik's summer appears to be a total disaster, until he meets Chazz Morningstar, a girl his age, who shows Flik the brighter side of Brooklyn.
School Daze
Published in 2003
A music-filled, off-beat contemporary comedy that takes an unforgettable look at black college life.
She's Gotta Have It
Published in 1986
Spike Lee's breakthrough feature is a provocative portrayal of an independent 80's woman struggling to maintain her identity while the men around her strive to control and define her.
Da Spike Lee 3 Joint Film Collection.
Published in 2015
Spike Lee Joint Collection, The - Volume 1
Published in 2014
The collection include: He Got Game (1998) - A gripping story abourt a convict given one shot at a second chance to be a father to his estranged son Jesus. 25th Hour (2003) - In 24-short hours, former king of Manhattan Monty Brogan will go to prison for seven long years. In his last day on the outside, Monty tries to reconnect with his father, reunite whith tow old friendsand figure out if his girlfriend was the one who tipped off the cops.
Spike Lee's America
Published in 2013
Spike Lee has directed, written, produced, and acted in dozens of films that present an expansive, nuanced, proudly opinionated, and richly multifaceted portrait of American society. As the only African-American filmmaker ever to establish a world-class career, Lee has paid acute attention to the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities. But white men and women also play important roles in his movies, and his interest in class, race, and urban life hasn't prevented his films from ranging over broad swaths of the American scene in stories as diverse as the audiences who view them. His defining trait is a willingness to raise hard questions about contemporary America without pretending to have easy answers; his pictures are designed to challenge and provoke us, not ease our minds or pacify our emotions. The opening words of his 1989 masterpiece Do the Right Thing is a vibrant and provocative engagement not only with the work of a great filmmaker, but also with American society and politics.
Spike Lee
Published in 2014
This insightful study probes the iconic filmmaker's career as a director and shaper of American culture. It not only sheds light on the ways in which Lee's background, influences, and outlook affect his films but also discusses how he participates in, transforms, and transcends the tradition of black American filmmaking. Each chapter offers a critical assessment of at least one, and sometimes multiple, Lee films, examining their production history; their place in Lee's filmography; and their aesthetic, cultural, and historical significance. Readers will come away from this first scholarly assessment of Lee's career and work with a better understanding of his penchant for stirring up controversy about significant social, political, and artistic issues as well as his role as an American artist who provokes his audiences as much as he pacifies them.