| One of the most significant figures in modern American cinema, Spike Lee is today’s most prolific black American film-maker. With 35 films to his credit, Lee’s filmography indexes the broad and tangled history of public debate over race, class, gender, and commercial cinema since the 1980s. This course will consider the evolution of the themes, genres, techniques, and artistic philosophy reflected in Lee’s work as director, producer and cultural critic over the same period. We will also be concerned to highlight the tensions accruing to the seeming contradiction of Lee’s reputation as an ‘independent’ film-maker and his prominence as a commercially successful ‘mainstream’ director. We will view several major and lesser-known films, from blockbusters like Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X to the obscure Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop and more recently Miracle at St. Anna. We as also consider Lee’s documentary projects 4 Little Girls and When the Levee’s Broke among other important Lee works (including television ads). The goal of the course is to critically situate ‘the Spike Lee phenomenon’ in the history of black American cinema and in the wider context of global filmmaking in the 21st century. We will read articles and essays by James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, Houston Baker, Manthia Diawara, bell hooks, Wahneema Lubiano, Mark Reid, W.J.T. Mitchell and others. This course is being offered to coincide with the Spike Frames: The Cinema of Spike Lee conference scheduled for November in New York. |
