New Spike Lee biography paints complex portrait

-

"What becomes clear in Spike Lee: That's My Story and I'm Sticking to It is that Lee is a far more complex filmmaker than many realize. His public image veers between hothead - his portrayal of Mookie throwing a trash can through a pizzeria window in Do the Right Thing is indelibly etched in the nation's moviegoing memory."

Also see "'Gangsta' image clouds role of education", which says in part:

"When controversial filmmaker Spike Lee was growing up in Brooklyn, he said he aspired to be like the educated black men he saw reading books and going to college.

"Today the images in society glorified by gangsta rap — pimping and violence — are overtaking the role education should play, Lee said during a lecture at Middle Tennessee State University.
"Young black kids didn't grow up wanting to be a pimp or a stripper like they do now," Lee said of his own youth. "You might think I'm making generalizations, but I don't think I am. That's how serious this stuff is."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mazisi Kunene's “Thoughts on June 26 (South African Liberation Day)”

-
My friend and colleague Gwen Becker pointed out to me how this brilliant poem by South African writer Mazisi Kunene could be read not only in a voice of defiance, but of profound ambivalence. "Was I wrong when I thought All shall be avenged? Was I wrong when I thought The rope of iron holding the neck of young bulls Shall be avenged? Was I wrong When I thought the orphans of sulphur Shall rise from the ocean? Was I depraved when I thought there need not be love There need not be forgiveness, there need not be progress, There need not be goodness on the earth, There need not be towns of skeletons, Sending messages of elephants to the moon? Was I wrong to laugh asphyxiated ecstasy When the sea rose like quicklime When the ashes on ashes were blown by the wind When the infant sword was left alone on the hilltop? Was I wrong to erect monuments of blood? Was I wrong to avenge the pillage of Caesar? Was I wrong? Was I wrong? Was I wr
Read more

BARBARA PERRY ON HOW TO DEFEAT CANADIAN FASCISTS (MF GALAXY 175)

-
Image
The danger that fascist groups pose to safety and democracy in Canada, and their disturbing connections to the Canadian military | The failure of Canadian media to take the fascist threat seriously, even after the lethal terrorist attack against the Quebec mosque | The best new ways to fight them LISTEN/DOWNLOAD In Canada, the threat posed by fascist, Whitesupremacist, and similar extremist groups is real, and growing. The proudly Islamophobic Soldiers of Odin are active right here in Edmonton, and even the right-wing Daily Mail newspaper in England describes as them a neo-nazi group. The Proud Boys are also on the march, and the Southern Poverty Law Centre in the United States names them as a hate group. And then there are the Three Percenters, the Ku Klux Klan, and many others like them, supported by extremist Canadian media and aligned with one major federal party. Alarmed by the rise of fascism in our midst, especially after the election of US president Donald
Read more

CATHLEEN ROOTSAERT ON WRITING MASS EFFECT, THREE DEAD TROLLS IN A BAGGIE (MF GALAXY 075)

-
Image
HOW IMPROV HELPS WRITING, THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LAUGHS WRITERS MUST UNDERSTAND, THE GAME MECHANICS OF IMPROV, FACING RESISTANCE TO HUMOUR ON MASS EFFECT 3 LISTEN/DOWNLOAD FREE Cathleen Rootsaert is a remarkable creator. She wrote plot and dialogue for the video game Mass Effect 3 by BioWare, and edited dialogue for the studio’s Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 2 games. In the late 1980s, along with rising improv stars Wes Borg, Neil Grahn, and Paul Mather, she co-founded the legendary Edmonton comedy troupe Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, which had a brief run as a CBC television series. She’s the playwright behind Mimi Amok, After You, Legacy, Make Me and Mama Mia! Me a Mama? which won the Sterling Award for outstanding new work. She also won the 2005 Alberta Playwriting Award for Abigail in Twilight. She appeared on the Ken Finkelman series The Newsroom and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival special I’m Becoming a Mother. She’s a core member of the two-deca
Read more