DOCUMENT RESUME CS 508 049 ED 353 622. Hudson, Herman C., Ed. AUTHOR Spike Lee and Commentaries on His Work. Occasional TITLE Papers Series 2, No. 1. Indiana Univ., Bloomington. Afro-American Studies. INSTITUTION PUB DATE 92 92p.; A Martha C. Kraft Professorship Publication. NOTE Reports PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) Reference Materials Evaluative /Feasibility (142) Bibliographies (131) MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE Auteurism; *Black Community; *Black Culture; Black DESCRIPTORS History; Cultural Images; Film Criticism; *Film Production Specialists; *Film Study; Popular Culture; Racial Relations; Urban Culture *African Americans; *Lee (Spike) IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT This monograph presents a critical essay and a comprehensive 454-item bibliography on the contemporary African-American filmmaker, Spike Lee. The essay, entitled "African-American Folklore and Cultural History in the Films of Spike Lee" (Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson), analyzes Lee's filmmaking approach from a cultural and historical perspective. The essay identifies Lee as a contemporary storyteller weaving his tales with the aid of a camera and demonstrates how his film narratives draw on both the historic and contemporary experiences of African Americans. The essay discusses five of Lee's films (made between 1984 and 1991) thematically, categorizing them under intra-racal issues and inter-racial issues. The bibliography (by Grace Jackson-Brown) provides citations from both scholarly and popular literature, encompassing newspaper articles, journal and magazine articles, chapters or sections from books, and reviews of films (most of the citations date from the last 5 years). The extensive 49-page bibliography is intended to be a comprehensive guide to literature that will assist students and researchers with an interest in Spike Lee. It is divided into six broad subject areas: Biography, Interviews, Production and Direction, Books and Book Reviews, Film Criticism and Film Reviews, and Entrepreneurship and Conduct of Life. (NKA) *********************************************************************** * * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. *********************************************************************** EDUCATION U.S. DEPARTMENT OF Improvement Othce of Educational Research and "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS INFORMATION Bst EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED CENTER tERICI El(This document has been reproduced as JLei 441OLCIA or organization received from the person ongmatmg it been made to improve ll Minor changes nave reproduct,on quality stated in this docu- Points of view or opinions represent official ment do not- necessanty RESOURC S TO THE EDUCATIONAL OERI position or policy INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)* " .1 7 I too. Spike Lee and His Work Commentaries on Editor Herman C. Hudson, with the Assistance of Student in English Audrey Levasseur, doctoral A Martha C. Kraft Professorship Publication Indiana University A Publication of the Martha C. Kraft Professorship Indiana University 1992 All rights reserved .1 Foreword controversial Spike Lee is the most prolific and and '90s. He African American filmmaker of the 1980s been successful both has made five films, all of which have Have It (1984), financially and aesthetically: She's Gotta (1989), Mo' Better School Daze (1986), Do the Right Thing His sixth film, Blues (1990), and Jungle Fever (1991). November 1992, is Malcom X, due to be released in students, and the eagerly anticipated by critics, film-study general public. decided Because of his stature as a filmmaker, we Occasional Paper to Spike Lee to devote an expanded essay and a which contains two sectionsa critical The essay analyzes Lee's comprehensive bibliography. from a historical and cultural filmmaking approach citations from perspective, and the bibliography provides scholarly and popular literature, encompassing newspaper and chapters or articles, journal and magazine articles, sections from books. for the Finally, we wish to express our appreciation special Occasional work of the two contributors to this Jackson-Brown, Paper, Gloria Gibson-Hudson and Grace publication this made scholarship competent whose possible. HERMAN HUDSON t.) Contents African American Folklore and Cultural History Spike Lee 7 in the Films Gloria J. (. ,son-Hudson 7 Introduction Intra-racial Issues as Themes 11 Inter-racial Issues as Thel is 23 34 Conclusion Bibliography on Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee, 1957- ) 43 Grace Jackson-Brown 43 Introduction 46 Biography 50 Interviews 52 Production and Direction 58 Books and Book Reviews 58 Malcolm X: The FBI Files Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee 58 58 Do the Right Thing: A Spike Lee Joint Uplift the Race: The Construction 59 (?f School Daze Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It: 60 Inside Guerilla Filmmaking Film Criticism and Reviews 61 WWII)? X 61 62 Jungle Fever 64 Mo' Better Blues 68 Do the Right Thing 77 School Daze 82 She's Gotta Have It 86 Joe's Bed-Stv Barbershop: We Cut Heads Entrepreneurship and Conduct of Life 87 Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Afro-American Assistant Studies and Director of the Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana She has conducted in-depth research and University. lectured extensively on the images of black women in film. and Wide Angle, New York Folklore, She has published in and has contributed Black Studies The Western Journal (?I' Gloria Gibson-Hudson chapters on film to two books. received her Ph.D. from Indiana University-Bloomington in folklore and ethnomusicology with an emphasis on the For 1992-93 she was awarded a use of music in film. National Research Council fellowship to study films by women of the African diaspora. Cultural African American Folklore and History in the Films of Spike Lee* Gloria J. Gibson-Hudson "Storytelling is a dynamic form of remembering Barbara Christian /recreating." Introduction In front of a crackling fire, many decades ago, and African Americans would sit, gaze into the flames, tale. listen intensely to a storyteller weave a marvelous from African Some of these narratives contained survivals folktales, others represented a unique synthesis of European based and African motifs. Some narratives, however, were experiences, including the relation- on everyday personal Many folktales and ship between slave and master. generation to personal narratives were passed down from recorded and placed in generation and subsequently Scholars from various disciplines continue to collections. narratives, analyze African American folktales, personal and cultural and folk music for their historic, folkloric, relevance. Although research has demonstrated that folklore analytical tool to help understand and can function as an historical evaluate creative cultural expression within a African American film, context, the relationship between explored.' folklore, and cultural history has rarely been York Folklore Vol. *A version of this paper appears in New 18, No. 1-2, 1992. African American Folklore and Cultural History 8 Recently, however, film scholars have called for a critical examination of African American cinema and its relation- "What is needed is a ship to culture. Todd Boyd states: clear articulation of African-American cinema within a culturally specific context so as to avoid imposing the dominant discourse upon a textual system to which it does this paper not apply."' line with challenge, this In approaches Spike Lee's work from a cultural perspective. identifies Lee as a contemporary The basic premise storyteller weaving his tales with the aid of a camera. His film narratives draw on both the historic and contemporary experiences of African Americans. dominant examines selected This investigation She's Gotta Have It themes that structure Lee's fiims: (1984), School Daze (1986), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), and Jungle Fever (1991).3 The analysis will demonstrate that Lee's themes are derived from African American cultural experiences and, further, that his themes reflect conceptualizations of black life found at the core of numerous African American folk traditions A strictly thematic (music, folk narratives, jokes, etc.). inquiry facilitates the analysis of the African American experiential relationships that exist in Lee's films as well as in other cultural creative expressions. The eminent scholar larger Lee's "His of work: states Baker Houston thematizations are what enable us to rank him among the creative company of blackamerican artists and intellectuals who have dedicated themselves and their works to cultural paper does not address plot critique."' While this it does argue that Lee's development (chain of events), thematic infrastructure (1) imparts cultural meaning in its own right over and above plot development and (2) evokes 9 The Films of Spike Lee culture-specific images by presenting a unique synthesis of folk elements derived from everyday experiences. article may be The themes discussed this in intra-racial issues categorized under two major headings: These categories are not mutually and inter-racial issues. Intra-racial themes draw upon experiences such exclusive. and the as color gradation, internalization of stereotypes, politics of identity within African American culture. Inter- racial themes explore the negative interactions between of African racism on effects the especially races, Americans. In acknowledging the importance of Lee's themes, thematic the huw demonstrate will analysis this infrastructure of Lee's work is derived from and informed The by aspects of African American cultural histot r. clarify significance of this derivation resides in its ability t& As aspects of African American culture for the viewer. Baker observes: "Lee's films are not devastatingly original, telling us always things we do not know. What is striking about his work is that it is so thoroughly grounded in what change."5 This we all know, but refuse to acknowledge or article concurs and maintains that the thematic use of folkloric and cultural elements within the film's context illuminates the folk-life experiences of African Americans. Moreover, Lee's use of folkloric elements functions as a creative mode of response to cultural and social conditions. Lee's film themes incorporate aspects of cultural history mediated by African American folk traditions. reveals the Folklore functions as a mediator in that it their of Black country and this people "history in