Film the Right Thing

Not one to pander, director Spike Lee once said, "What’s the difference between Hollywood actors and my characters? Mine are real." Lee has made it his mission to portray on the big screen the realities of being black in America. In Do the Right Thing, he sketched a rich portrait...

By Amanda McCorquodale

June 17, 2010

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Not one to pander, director Spike Lee once said, "What’s the difference between Hollywood actors and my characters? Mine are real." Lee has made it his mission to portray on the big screen the realities of being black in America. In Do the Right Thing, he sketched a rich portrait of the Brooklyn neighborhood Bed-Stuy. He explored black relationships and the stigma of interracial dating in She’s Gotta Have It and Jungle Fever. In When the Levees Broke, he presented what really happened to New Orleans’s African-American community after Hurricane Katrina. And in Miracle at St. Anna, he dramatized the sacrifices of overlooked black soldiers during World War II.

The Oscar-winning director will share wisdom from his 25 years in the biz at an art-of-filmmaking master class, part of the American Black Film Festival.
Sat., June 26, 9 a.m., 2010

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