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His mother was a teacher of arts and black literature, while his father is a jazz musician. Lee was born Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta, Georgia, but raised in what he calls “the Republic of Brooklyn”. This is the kind of toughness his late mother perceived in him when she nicknamed him Spike.

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Undercover with the Ku Klux Klan … Adam Driver and John David Washington in BlacKkKlansman. It’s a surprisingly magnanimous stance from an auteur who’s never pulled his punches, having previously entangled with the likes of Donald Trump (who complained about Lee’s “racist hit on your president” 2019 Oscars speech), Quentin Tarantino (for the excessive use of the N-word in his films), Clint Eastwood (for the absence of African American soldiers in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima), and black director Tyler Perry (for the “ buffoonery” of his Madea franchise). So I’m calling on Black Twitter to give the guy a break – because when Black Twitter gets on your ass, they get on your ass.” I’ve misspoken many times in my life, too. “But look, I’m not going to kill the guy. “I’d never heard that description before,” he laughs.

Malcolm X was once again being hotly debated only last week after Daniel Scheinert, one of the directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once, called it his favourite “crime movie”. And when Black Twitter gets on your ass, they get on your ass. The struggle continues.” I’ve misspoken many times in my life. But I’ll never say there’s been no progress. It’s one of the greatest I’ve ever seen.” As for the fight against racism, he adds: “It’s always two steps forward, one step back. And that performance by Denzel still amazes me. Did you see what happened in Memphis recently?” says Lee, referring to the killing of Tyre Nichols, a shocking reminder that history has a habit of repeating itself.

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The film, which is being reissued on a new 35mm print in liaison with the BFI National Archive this summer, opens with grainy footage of Rodney King being beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991, set against Washington delivering the Malcolm X speech I Charge the White Man. Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstarīut perhaps his most renowned work is Malcolm X, his 1992 biopic of the African American activist, starring Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett. It’s one of the greatest I’ve ever seen’ … Denzel Washington in Malcolm X. In between came Inside Man, a thriller about a Wall Street heist, and 4 Little Girls, a documentary about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Highlights include 1989’s Do the Right Thing, which explored racial tensions in Brooklyn, and 2018’s BlacKkKlansman, the true story of a black detective who went undercover with the Ku Klux Klan. Since the 1986 Cannes premiere of She’s Gotta Have It, a radical sex comedy about an African American woman and her three male suitors, shot in two weeks for $175,000, he has made dozens of films. There isn’t room to list all of Lee’s work. Not just people in the industry, but my parents, siblings, teachers, not to forget my beautiful wife Tonya.” With race, it’s always two steps forward, one step back. This fellowship is for all the people that have helped me. “One person might accept an award,” says Lee, speaking from Los Angeles, “but a lot of people were responsible that you don’t see.

Previous recipients have included Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor and Steve McQueen. His films have chronicled black lives and challenged assumptions about race, class and gender in interviews and speeches, he has thundered against social injustice, police brutality and the entertainment industry’s problems with representation.įor all of this and more, Lee was this week awarded the BFI Fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by the British Film Institute to individuals for their “outstanding contribution to film or television culture”. After a career spanning more than 30 years, the 65-year-old has developed a reputation as Hollywood’s conscience. “Pussy Galore,” he repeats, laughing.Īlthough the film-maker’s grasp of cinema has come a long way since then, there is still something in him reminiscent of that six-year-old boy: curious, unafraid to speak his mind, keen to ask awkward questions. My mother grabbed me by the neck and said: ‘Don’t say another word!’” Lee cackles, clearly tickled. I said: ‘Mommy, why is that lady named Pussy Galore?’ And the whole audience heard me. Those Bond films have explosions and shootings, but there was a lull in the action and everything was quiet. She loved James Bond and took me to see Goldfinger.

Spike definition theatre movie#

And since I was the eldest sibling, I was her movie date. ‘When I was little,” says Spike Lee, “my father hated Hollywood films, but my mother was a cinephile.