NEW YORK (AP) — Spike Lee was just 10 when Muhammad Ali, in 1967, refused to be drafted into the Vietnam. It wasn’t his fight, Ali said then. The Vietnamese “never lynched me.” Ali’s stand, and the subsequent vitriol that came his way, made an enormous impression on Lee. His latest film, “Da 5 Bloods,” […]
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s not the first time that Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” has been freshly urgent, but Lee’s 1989 film has again found blistering relevance in the wake of George Floyd’s death. On Monday, Lee released a short film titled “3 Brothers” connecting the death of Radio Raheem (played by Bill […]
PARIS (AP) — American director Spike Lee will lead the jury of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the first black person to hold the post in the event’s 73-year history. Festival organizers hope Lee will “shake things up” among the world’s cinema elite at the festival which runs May 12-23. And anti-racism campaigners hope Lee’s […]
The nominees for the 91st Academy Awards were unveiled Tuesday morning, and there’s quite a few historical breakthroughs for Black talent this year. While there were also a good deal of disappointments (such as no Oscar nods for women directors), we’re celebrating the fact that Black Panther alone scored seven Oscar nominations – a strong […]
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has released a new study that examined Hollywood’s steps towards diversity and inclusion in front of and behind the camera in 2018. Overall, it revealed an impressive increase in Black directors who helmed films in the 100 top-performing movies of the year. The study, titled “Inclusion in the […]
Focus Features has released the first trailer for the highly anticipated fact-based drama BlacKkKlansman, and it’s wildly entertaining. Directed by Spike Lee and produced by Jordan Peele, BlacKkKlansman is based on the true story of Ron Stallworth, who went undercover in the 1970s as the first African-American detective to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. Back […]
You can now learn filmmaking from the legend himself, Spike Lee. For only $90, the celebrated filmmaker will launch his first online class in partnership with MasterClass, a platform that hosts more than two-dozen celebrity-led classes. Set to begin this summer, the course will offer valuable insight into Lee’s 30 years of professional filmmaking. Although […]