An evening with Spike Lee

"All directors are storytellers, so the motivation was to tell the story I wanted to tell. That's what I love."

-Spike Lee

Last night I was fortuned to be in a lecture hosted by the director Spike Lee. A director of whom I had only heard of and I got a ticket to go just for participating in class. For those of you who are like me and didn't really know who he was or had a preconceived notion that he was of asian decent because of his name, allow me to clue you in.

Spike Lee is a black director from Brooklyn, New York who grew up through the end of the civil rights movement. A lot of his movies focus on the basis of racial tension. Most recently, he has done documentaries on Hurricane Katrina and the effects of the BP Oil Spill on the gulf.

While I haven't had the chance to see his movies, his words gave me a real feel for what he's all about. He said that the problem with a divide between class and race, he also said that even though we are uncomfortable with discussing race, it is necessary because it we keep avoiding it, the world will never change. He spoke about how his films had come under fire, thinking that they would cause a riot in the community, but how he stuck to his guns because of the necessity of it all. The biggest thing that stuck out was how he talked about media and the effect it can have. That is why we have many stereotypes today such as "indians are savages". Media created this, so he tried using media as a means of being brutally honest with america.

It was a rewarding experience to hear what he had to say and I have an appreciation for what he does like all those who I was among.

I plan on watching some of his films. I recommend that you do too!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Until next post.

-Beth