“(Spike) Lee continues to be one of the most prolific filmmakers — rarely has a year passed without a release of the latest “Spike Lee Joint” film (…) he’s never stopped pushing the envelope.” –The L.A Times

Spike Lee is a Writer-Director, Actor, Producer, Author and Educator who has helped revolutionize Modern Black Cinema. He has been a pioneer of independent filmmaking and a strong proponent of African American culture, delving into the perplexities of race and identity. Much of his work is politically inflected, provocative, and often controversial, and treats issues of identity and community that resonate throughout African American literature. Several of Lee’s films deal with questions and dilemmas surrounding African American identity, gender, and class.

Spike Lee made a name for himself with the hit independent film She’s Gotta Have It(1986). In later films he continued to tell stories with racial themes and New York settings, including the Brooklyn drama Do the Right Thing(1989), jazz-tinged Mo’ Better Blues(1990), the interracial romance Jungle Fever(1993), the biopic Malcolm X (1992) which earned Denzel Washington an Oscar nomination, the documentary 4 Little Girls (1997) which got an Academy Award nomination for Best documentary feature, Summer of Sam(1999), the controversial racial satire Bamboozled (2000) and the mainstream heist thriller Inside Man(2006).

Through his production company 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, Lee continues to create and direct both independent films and projects for major studios, as well as working on story development, creating an internship program for aspiring filmmakers, releasing music, and community outreach and support.

This year, Professor Lee got tenure at NYU where, in 1993, he began teaching the Graduate Film Program at Tisch School of the Arts where he received his Master of Fine Arts in Film Production. In 2002 he was appointed the Artistic Director of the Graduate Film Program.

Spike Lee will be at the Festival on September 24, find out more.