Focus On Spike Lee

By: Mel Campbell
Date: 4th Dec 08
Format: Festival
Mood: Nostalgic

What:
Focus On Spike Lee

When:
Dec 5-14

Where:
ACMI Cinemas

How much:
$13/$10, or 6 sessions $60/$48

Win:
We have 5 dbls for the Do The Right Thing screening Fri Dec 5 at 7.30pm! To enter, email win@threethousand.com.au with the subject line ‘I'm just a struggling black man trying to keep my dick hard in a cruel and harsh world'

Nobody tells Spike Lee to 'shut his face'. When Clint Eastwood tried it back in June, Brooklyn's righteously bespectacled auteur slapped Dirty Harry down with 'We're not on a plantation.'

Is Spike finally getting his America? After all, Barack Obama's first date with Michelle was going to see Do The Right Thing. Spike's breakthrough joint was a trashcan through the window of American multiculturalism - right from Rosie Perez's fierce dance to ‘Fight The Power'. Fly clothes, trash-talk, Samuel L Jackson playing DJ, and American prejudices reaching boiling point during a heatwave... critics were afraid Do The Right Thing would spark race riots.

And as ACMI's retrospective shows, Spike Lee just keeps hitting that cinematic sweet spot with his trademark mix of politics, wit and music. See him tackle black sports stars (He Got Game), interracial romance (Jungle Fever), drug dealing (Clockers), Hurricane Katrina (When The Levees Broke), jazz (Mo' Better Blues), civil rights (Malcolm X), blaxploitation (Girl 6) and more.

And the soundtracks are unbelievable! Leaping through the speakers are Prince, Branford Marsalis, Public Enemy, Stevie Wonder and Spike's dad, Bill Lee. And can we see it all on the big screen, in fresh new prints? Yes, we can!