MARC/AIM Summer Research

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MARC/AIM Summer Research

• Crystal Dahl,
• Purdue University
• Mentor Ben Lawton,
• Chair of Film/Video Studies

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SPECIAL THANKS

• Before I start I would like to thank the people
  who made
• this incredible opportunity possible for me
  Professor John
• Contreni, Dean of the Purdue Graduate School,
  Professor
• Toby Parcel, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts,
  Prof.
• Ronald Coolbaugh, director of Purdue's Marc/Aim
  program,
• the generous donations from Proctor and Gamble
  Inc., the
• faculty and staff that supported Marc/Aim this
  year, and the
• program aids and assistants. Also, I would like
  to thank the
• Marc/Aim program for giving me an opportunity to
  meet
• people from all over the United States, the
  Caribbean,
• Mexico, and Africa.

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SPIKE LEEPORTRAIT OF A CONTROVERSIAL FILMMAKER
This is a picture of Spike Lee as Mars Blackman
in SGHI. I chose this picture because the title
of my research is Spike Lee Portrait of a
Controversial Filmmaker and this is a picture
from his first controversial movie.
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INTRODUCTION

• Spike Lee is unquestionably the most famous
  African
• American director. He is also, arguably, the most
  
• controversial. In his public pronouncements and
  even in the
• name of his production company, Forty Acres and a
  Mule
• Filmworks, Lee is pro-Black. He is outspoken in
  his
• condemnation of the pandemic racism that has cast
  a
• shadow over the history of this country. But in
  his films he
• frequently depicts aspects of the African
  American
• community in a manner that is less than
  flattering. Why this
• seeming contradiction? The purpose of this
  research
• project is to better understand why Spike Lee is
  so
• controversial and the impact his films have had
  on
• viewers. This task was completed by doing the
  following

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METHODS

• Read Books, Articles, and Interviews by and about
  the Filmmaker
• Write Annotated Bibliography
• Watch all of Spike Lees films
• Write Annotated filmography
• Host Film Screenings and Discussion Forum

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Body of Work

• Spike Lee made 19 films in 18 years. He has
  written,
• directed, produced, and occasionally starred in
  12 of
• these films including School Daze, Do The Right
  Thing,
• Crooklyn and He Got Game. Some of the films that
  he
• produced that you may not have known were his
• include The Original Kings Of Comedy, Love and
• Basketball, The Best Man, Tales from the Hood,
  Drop
• Squad, Good Fences, and 3 A.M.

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Information About The Filmmaker
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AIRING DIRTY LAUNDRY

• As I went about my research I began to notice
  several themes.
• Since his debut film She's Gotta Have It, Spike
  Lee sets the
• precedent for dealing with issues that are taboo
  in the African
• American community. It is what he has come to be
  known for.
• Accordingly, he earns a living by stirring
  emotions in people and
• by presenting issues that Black people discuss
  behind closed
• doors. However, Spike Lee is not the first
  filmmaker to depict
• people of his own race, ethnicity, or nationality
  critically. DeSica's
• Bicycle Thieves, a world-famous cinema classic,
  was denounced
• for airing the Italians' dirty laundry in public.
  Furthermore,
• Scorsese and Coppola are highly critical of
  certain aspects of
• Italian American culture. They, like Spike Lee,
  are also proud of
• their heritage. I have categorized some of the
  themes or issues
• Spike Lee presents in his films. Intra-racism
  refers to racism
• among people of the same race.

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• Inter/Intra-racism Black Female
  Sexuality Biography/Documentary
• School Daze (1988) Shes Gotta Have It
  (1986) Malcolm X (1992)
• Do The Right Thing (1989) Girl 6 (1996)
  Crooklyn (1994)
• Jungle Fever (1991) She Hate Me
  (2004) 4 Little Girls (1997)
• Get on the Bus (1996)
  Jim Brown All American
• Summer of Sam (1999)
  (2002)
• Bamboozled (2000)
• 
  Family/Father
  Miscellaneous
• 
  Relationship Mo Better Blues
  (1990)
• Crooklyn (1994)
  Clockers (1995)
• Get on the Bus (1996)
  The Original Kings of
• 
  He Got Game (1998) Comedy
  (2000)
• 
  25th Hour (2002)

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EXAMPLES

• For example, in School Daze Spike Lee presents
• animosity between African Americans with lighter
  skin
• and African Americans with darker skin.
  Inter-racism
• refers to racism between races. While many of his
  films
• deal with racism between whites and Blacks,
• particularly Blacks and Italian Americans, Lee
  also
• deals with internal problems in the African
  American
• community. Get on the Bus focuses on Black
• homosexuality and the Father Son relationship in
  the
• Black community.

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SUCCESS
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SUCCESS

• As you can see, with the exception of Get on the
  Bus
• and 4 Little Girls which produced a small profit,
  Spike
• Lee has continually lost money on his films from
• Crooklyn forward.
• The following are brief portions of quotes by
  critics on
• why Spike Lees more recent movies havent had
  the
• success of his first several feature films. If
  you would
• like to hear the full quotes at the end I can
  read them to
• you.

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Spike Lee misses at the Box Office

• Todd Boyd, Associate Professor at USC
• His movies are the same as they were in the
  beginning.
• Nelson George, Pop culture writer
• Reviews of Lees films are filled with recurring
  themes Lees
• endings dont satisfy his films are didactic.
• Jones, Vanessa E. Spike Lee Right on Time, New
  York Times. 13 January, 2003
• Lee is a victim of an industry he helped
  transform.
• Steve Persall, Times Film Critic
• Some people dont want to hear what Spike Lee has
  to
• say, much like Bill Cosbys recent rebukes.

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Forty Acres and a Mule

• General William Tecumseh Shermans Special Field
  Order No. 15, January 16, 1865
• 1869 President Andrew Jackson rescinds bill
• 40 Acres and a Mule today

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HISTORY

• January 16, 1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman
  outlined in
• his Special Field Order, No. 15 that the islands
  from Charleston,
• south, the abandoned rice fields along the rivers
  for thirty miles
• back from the sea, and the country bordering the
  St. Johns River,
• Florida, be reserved and set aside for the
  settlement of former
• enslaved African Americans. According to Martha
  L. Wharton,
• PhD currently the assistant director of academic
  affairs and
• diversity at Loyola College of Maryland, while
  40,000 freedmen
• had claimed 400,000 acres of land that June, by
  September former
• owners began to infringe upon the Black
  landowners rights of
• access. In 1869 President Andrew Jackson
  rescinded the bill and
• many Black landowners were ejected from their
  property
• (Promises Unfulfilled). Other sources add that
  these Black
• landowners became sharecroppers on the land that
  had been
• theirs. Today Forty Acres and a Mule refers to
  the slice of
• American Pie promised to African Americans that
  remains
• unfulfilled.

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40 ACRES SPIKE

• The very name of Spike Lee's production company,
• "Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, contains
  within it
• the elements of the contradictions that are
  inherent to
• his opus. By naming his company after a bill that
  
• allegedly gave reparations to former slaves, Lee
  is
• demanding his due-even though the bill was later
• rescinded. "Forty acres and a Mule" also implies
  that,
• once freed from slavery, Blacks could survive on
  their
• own and be masters of their own destiniesLee was
• determined to be successful as a Black man, on
  his
• own terms. He accomplished this task with little
  help
• from the White-dominated entertainment industry
  by
• making the controversial, but critically
  acclaimed
• She's Gotta Have It.

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Spikes Gotta Have It

• 1986 Cannes Film Festival
  Award of the Youth,
  Spike Lee Foreign Film
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards,
  Spike Lee New Generation Award
• 1987 Independent Spirit Awards, Spike Lee Best
  First Feature

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MAKING WAVES

• He further turned the industry on its head by
  making
• movies with Black-centered themes and with
  African
• American actors and staff. "40 Acres and a Mule"
  has
• also come to represent resistance to racial
  injustice
• perpetrated against Blacks. For example, just as
• freedmen wanted forty acres and a mule, in Do The
  
• Right Thing, Buggin' Out wants Black pictures on
  the
• wall in Sal's Famous Pizzeria."40 Acres and a
  Mule" is
• also a critical reflection on those Blacks who
  fail to
• use the opportunities given to them or who misuse
  
• them. This is shown in most of Lee's movies
  starting
• with School Daze. "Forty Acres and a Mule," in
  films
• ranging from School Daze to Get on the Bus, is
  also a
• reminder that Blacks were and are victims of both
  
• inter-racial and intra-racial racism.

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SPIKE LEE AND YOU

• Finally, "Forty Acres and a Mule" would seem
• to be urging Blacks to stand on their own feet
• and refuse to sell out and accept the
• sharecroppers' lot. This is particularly clear in
  
• Bamboozled. In this film, Lee takes on the
• contemporary entertainment industry. In order
• to remind us of the historical dehumanization
• of African Americans he shows us racist
• memorabilia such as lawn jockeys, windup
• toys, and cookie jars.

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HISTORY

• Lee also reminds us of the origins of
• "blackface minstrelsy" in which white
• performers, such as Thomas Dartmouth
• "Daddy" Rice, with their faces blackened,
• caricatured African Americans in song
• and dance performances such as "Jim
• Crow"

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Thomas Dartmouth Daddy Rice dances Jim Crow
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A New Wake Up Call in 2000Do you feel Bamboozled?

• A New Wake Up Call in 2000
• Do You Feel Bamboozled?

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NOT ALONE

• As deplorable as these depictions of Blacks were,
  Lee shows us
• something even worse, Blacks who are bamboozled
  into
• performing in blackface to the delight of both
  Blacks and
• Whites. It is clear at this point that Lee is
  indicting not just the
• hegemonic entertainment industry that continues
  to depict African
• Americans as buffoons, as lazy, shiftless "porch
  monkeys," but
• also the Blacks who make it possible for shows
  like "Mantan the
• New Millennium Minstrel Show" to exist by being
  willing to act,
• write, direct, and produce these shows and those
  African
• Americans who patronize and applaud such
  so-called
• entertainment.  In short, by calling his
  production company "40
• Acres and a Mule Filmworks,"

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UPNs The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, a
situation comedy about a Black butler in the
Lincoln White House
Mantan Moreland portrays wide-eyed and nervous
menservants in countless roles. Last film
Watermelon Man. Born September 4, 1901. Died
September 28, 1973

• UPNs Homeboys In Outer Space, a comedy about
  two homeboys who fly around in a spaceship named
  Hoopty and go on a series of misadventures
  aided by a smart-mouthed computer, Loquatia

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BRINGING TOGETHER MESSAGES

• Lee brings together his many seeming
  contradictory
• messages the jab at White America, the outcry
  for
• resistance to racial injustice, and the wake up
  call for
• African Americans to be conscious about the ways
  in
• which, by their own behavior, they help
  individuals in
• power to continue to oppress Black people.

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Future Analysis

• Host more Film Screenings
• Black Women on Screen
• Conversations with the Filmmaker

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SOURCES
Baker, Jr., Houston A. Spike Lee and the
Commerce of Culture. Black American Cinema. Ed.
Manthia Diawara. New York Routledge, 1993.
154-176.
Baraka, Amiri. Spike Lee at the Movies. Black
American Cinema. Ed. Manthia Diawara. New York
Routledge, 1993. 145-153.
Bogle, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies,
Bucks. New York The Continuum International
Publishing Group Inc., 1973, 1989, 2001.
Donaldson, Melvin. Black Directors in Hollywood.
Austin, Texas University of Texas Press, 2003.
The Films of Spike Lee, Five for Five. New York
Stewart, Tabori Chang, 1991.
Fuchs, Cynthia. Spike lees interviews. Jackson,
Mississippi University Press of Mississippi,
2002.
Guerrero, Ed. Black Film in the 1990s. Framing
Blackness The African American Image in Film.
Philadelphia Temple University Press, 1993.
140-155.
Harrison, Barbara Grizzuti. Spike Lee Hates Your
Cracker Ass. Esquire. October, 1992 132-140.
Jones, K. Maurice. Spike Lee and the African
American Filmmakers A Choice of Colors.
Brookfield, Connecticut The Millbrook Press,
1996.
Lawton, Ben. "Mafia and the Movies Why is
Italian/American Synonymous with Organized
Crime? Screening Ethnicity Cinematographic
Representations of Italian Americans in the
United States. Boca Raton, FL Bordighera Press,
2002. 69-95.
Lee, Spike, and Lisa Jones. Uplift The Race. New
York Simon Schusler, Inc., 1988.
Lee, Spike, and Lisa Jones. Do The Right Thing.
New York Simon Schuster, Inc., 1989.
Lee, Spike. Spikes Gotta Have It, Inside
Guerrilla Filmmaking. New York Simon Schuster,
Inc., 1987.
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SOURCES
Lee, Spike, and Ralph Wiley. By Any Means
Necessary The Trials and Tribulations of the
Making of Malcolm X. New York Hyperion, 1992.
Massood, Paula J. Black City Cinema African
American Urban Experiences in Film. Philadelphia
Temple University Press, 2003. 117-143.
Massood, Paula J. Black City Cinema African
American Urban Experiences in Film. Philadelphia
Temple University Press, 2003. 188-189.
Rocchio, Vincent F. Reel Racism. United States of
America Westview Press, 2000. 137-172
Watkins, S. Craig. Producing the Spike Lee
Joint. Representing hip hop culture and the
production of black cinema. Chicago The
University of Chicago Press, 1998. 107-136
Watkins, S. Craig. Spikes joint. Representing
hip hop culture and the production of black
cinema. Chicago The University of Chicago
Press, 1998. 137-166.
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SPECIAL THANKS

• And finally, thanks to Professor Lawton who over
  the years
• at Purdue has encouraged me both in the classroom
  and in
• my personal life. He has taught be to look at
  films critically,
• always searching for the conceptual nucleus and
  to respect
• but not accept automatically and unthinkingly
  what anyone
• says, (including my mama-she hates Spike Lee ),
  and who
• mentored my growing understanding and
  appreciation of
• the works of Spike Lee, that often great,
  frequently difficult,
• always controversial Black filmmaker who has done
  so
• much for all of us, Black and White, with his 40
  Acres and a
• Mule.