Spike Lee: Life in Film

Take a look at the fearless filmmaker's groundbreaking work in celebration of his birthday!

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She’s Gotta Have It (1986)  - Today is Spike Lee's birthday, check out a trip down memory lane via the Oscar nominee's films.  A young Spike Lee ushered in the new era of independent Black filmmaking with She’s Gotta Have It, a film he shot on a budget of $175,000. (It went on to make $7 million.) About a urban professional Black woman and her three lovers, the film—eschewing the pimp-ho-criminal-brute focus of many Hollywood Black movies—is a not only a breath of fresh air, but a game changer, paving the way for a Black cinema resurregence in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.(Photo: 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks)
School Daze (1988) - Wanting to illustrate the tension between Black college students and Black Atlanta locals, Spike Lee cast Jackson as Leeds, a Jheri curl-wearing street tough guy who tried to remind a Black student leader (Laurence Fishburne) that he's just a n----r. Again, a classic performance.(Photo: Courtesy Columbia Pictures)Do the Right Thing (1989) - In Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which illuminated the ethnic tensions of a Brooklyn neighborhood, Jackson played Mister Señor Love Daddy, a radio DJ who worked to keep folks level-headed and in the groove.(Photo: Courtesy 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks)

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Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee turns 66 years old today. We are looking back on his dynamic life in film.

Photo By (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Jaeger-LeCoultre)

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