Spike Lee
Film Director, Producer, Writer And Actor, Spike Lee, Was Born March 20, 1957, In Atlanta, Georgia.
Born Shelton Jackson Lee, Lee Moved With His Family To Brooklyn, New York When He Was A Small Child. His Mother Nicknamed Him "Spike" Because Of His Toughness.
He Attended Morehouse College In Atlanta. At Morehouse Lee Became Interested In Film Making, And Upon Graduation In 1979, Was Awarded A Summer Internship With Columbia Pictures In Burbank, California. In The Fall, He Returned To New York To Attend New York University’s Institute Of Film And Television, Tisch School of the Arts.
Lee Earned His Master’s In Film Making From NYU in 1982, And As His Final Film Project, He Wrote, Produced, And Directed Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. His Father Composed The Original Jazz Score, The First Of Several He Created For His Son’s Films. The Film Was Set At A Barbershop In Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant Neighborhood That Serves As A Front For A Numbers-Running Operation.
The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences Awarded Lee the 1983 Student Academy Award For Best Director. The Movie Was The First Student Film To Be Showcased In Lincoln Center’s New Directors New Films Festival.
In 1985, Lee Began Work On His First Feature Film, She’s Gotta Have It. With a Budget Of $175,000, The Film Was Shot In Two Weeks. When It Was Released In 1986, It Grossed Over $7,000,000 At The U.S. Box Office.
Executives From Nike Saw And Liked She’s Gotta Have It And Hired Lee To Produce A Series Of Commercials Featuring Him As Mars Blackmon And Michael Jordan(As Himself), In Their Marketing Campaign For The Air Jordan Shoe Line.
Spike Lee Went On To Establish Himself As One Of Hollywood’s Most Important and Influential Filmmakers -- Creatively Examining Race And Other Social Issues Through His Critically-Acclaimed And Award-Winning Films. These Include: School Daze (1988), Malcolm X (1992), Do The Right Thing (1991), Clockers (1995), Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues (1990), 4 Little Girls (1997), Get On The Bus (1996) And When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts (2006).
"In Order For Black History To Live, We Must Continue To Breathe Life Into It." -- Hubert Gaddy, Jr.
