Emory film series celebrates 40 years of Spike Lee

He’s a groundbreaking Black American filmmaker whose movies spotlight divisive social issues with vivid characters and bold stylistic choices. His films spark provocative cultural conversations. And, says Beretta Smith-Shomade, the movies of Spike Lee also “have the best soundtracks, ever.”

This year marks four decades since the debut of Lee’s first film, “She’s Gotta Have It,” in 1986. Smith-Shomade, Emory professor of film and media, is celebrating by dedicating this semester’s Emory Cinematheque to his work. 

The Department of Film and Media invites film buffs and the film-curious to the free, public screenings. This season of the Cinematheque takes place in White Hall, Room 208, on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., starting Sept. 2.

Visiting scholars and, in one case, an actor from a Spike Lee film, will take part in audience Q&As after each of the 14 screenings. They will also meet with students in Smith-Shomade’s film and media class “Studies in Major Figures: Spike Lee” for focused discussions about the filmmaker’s creative choices.

Emory College of Arts and Sciences co-sponsors the series.
 

Entertaining, challenging viewing

Since “bursting onto the scene” in 1986, Lee has earned a reputation as one of the most important filmmakers of our time, says Smith-Shomade, making films that center on Black life and explore different moviemaking conventions.  

His films consistently point to “larger, critical themes,” she says, including racial bias, poverty, police violence and the portrayal of African Americans in media.

But no Spike Lee film focuses on just one issue. “There are always a whole host of things characters are grappling with,” says Smith-Shomade, “whether that’s schooling, crime or just living day to day.”  

Lee’s films don’t always make for easy viewing, she says. “Sometimes, he’s telling uncomfortable truths, things people don’t want to hear. Or don’t want to hear put that way.” 

Some viewers have taken him to task for superficial portrayals of women. “And rightly so,” Smith-Shomade says.

Despite this directorial “blindspot,” it’s important not to dismiss Lee’s filmography outright, she says. “You still should engage the films. Like it or not, he has brought important conversations to the fore, and it’s more critical than ever that we continue them today.” 

Plus, she adds, much of Lee’s work is wildly entertaining.

Beretta Smith-Shomade discusses three of her favorite Spike Lee films 

“School Daze,” screening Sept. 9

“School Daze,” Lee’s second movie, is a musical comedy about homecoming weekend at a fictional, historically Black college. And it holds a special place in Smith-Shomade’s heart. 

Lee filmed much of “School Daze” in and around Clark Atlanta University while Smith-Shomade was a student there. 

“A lot of my classmates were extras,” she says. “So, the first time I went to see it with friends, people were talking over it so much that I literally had to go back and watch it again.

“What I love about this film is, you get to know that Spike is going to be a formalist filmmaker,” she adds. 

Formalism, she explains, is an approach to filmmaking “that exploits the possibilities of the film form.”  In “School Daze,” as with the rest of his filmography, she says, “Lee embraces bold visual storytelling. This film challenges conventions, with musical dance numbers and moments when characters talk directly to the camera, breaking the fourth wall.”

The movie also demonstrates Lee’s “really strong eye for talent,” says Smith-Shomade. “We see a young Tisha Campbell and a young-ish Laurence Fishburne.” 

Actor and dancer Kyme Hersi-Sallid, who played the lead role of Rachel Meadows, will join Smith-Shomade for the movie’s Q&A after the Emory Cinematheque screening. 
 

“Crooklyn,” screening Oct. 7

Lee takes a turn for the semi-autobiographical in “Crooklyn,” a coming-of-age comedy-drama that takes place in 1970s Brooklyn.

The movie follows nine-year-old Troy, played by Zelda Harris, over a single summer.

“We see her playing hopscotch in the street and going to the corner bodega. And we see the diversity of the neighborhood, people from all different cultures who live on the same block,” says Smith-Shomade. “It’s just this wonderful story about girlhood.”

Lee wrote the script with his sister, Joie Lee, and his brother, Cinque Lee. 

Some of Smith-Shomade’s favorite moments from the movie revolve around the family television. In one, the five siblings sing along to a song on “The Partridge Family.” In another scene, Troy’s older brother defies his mother by watching a New York Knicks basketball game on a weeknight. “And of course Spike is a diehard Knicks fan,” says Smith-Shomade. 

In another sequence, Troy visits family in Virginia. For 20 minutes, Lee employs an anamorphic lens to make the characters appear disproportionately tall and strange. 

“Lee likens it to ‘Alice in Wonderland,’” says Smith-Shomade. “It’s about the relationships African Americans, in particular, have with the North and the South, when so many families have done this Great Migration to go up North, and what that’s meant for families.”
 

“4 Little Girls,” screening Oct. 28

“4 Little Girls,” Lee’s first documentary, was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Documentary Feature” in 1997.

The film recounts the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The attack killed four children: Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins.

“Spike interviewed the people who were most affected,” says Smith-Shomade, including the girls’ families and friends. He also interviewed prosecutors in the case and George Wallace, who was Alabama’s governor in 1963. Wallace was an outspoken segregationist and many people blamed him for creating the climate that led to the bombing.

“The way [Lee] tells the story is just so powerful,” says Smith-Shomade. “It was three-and-a-half decades after these people had buried their children, and how he gets them to talk about it is just incredible. There are a lot of close-ups of people’s faces. And it really helps us understand the impact of racist violence and the real-world consequences of racist ideology.”