A discussion about filmmakers who have made an impact would be deficient without the inclusion of Spike Lee. Always bold, controversial, and compelling, Lee’s films have run the gamut of the issues and have had momentous cultural impact. While African Americans have worked in Hollywood since the 1920s thanks to the pioneering work of Oscar Micheaux, few have mattered as much as Spike Lee.

Lee’s films were often frank critiques of social and political issues. His fans are numerous, but so are his detractors. Lee is often shamefully dubbed a racist by those who lack an understanding of his films and is often underestimated as a great director of great actors. His work with performers like Denzel Washington, Laurence Fishburne, and Angela Bassett helped further the careers of those actors. Lee’s work in film also cleared a path for other young African American filmmakers, like John Singleton and Matty Rich. His impact in the world of film is significant and his career is remarkable.

Beginnings

Spike Lee was born in Atlanta, but moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was a small child. His mother nicknamed him “Spike” as he was growing up. Lee attended Morehouse College, where he completed his first student film entitled Last Hustle in Brooklyn. Taking film courses in Clark Atlanta University and finishing up with a B.A. in Mass Communication out of Morehouse, Lee focused on a career in film early on. He originally wanted to be a major league baseball player, but the movie bug bit him soon enough.

By 1978, Spike Lee had graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Television out of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Other notable grads out of the Tisch School of the Arts include Oliver Stone, Ang Lee, and Martin Scorsese. For his master’s thesis in 1983, Lee submitted the film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. The project won a Student Academy Award and was the first student film to be showcased in Lincoln Center’s New Directors New Films Festival.

Nike’s Gotta Have It

In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film. She’s Gotta Have It was made on a shoestring budget of around $175,000, marking an end to Blaxploitation and a new beginning in African American filmmaking. The movie did well and helped bring about the American indie film movement of the 1980s. She’s Gotta Have It depicted African Americans as intellectual and eloquent urbanites, marking a stern shift from previous efforts.

The movie was so successful that Nike came calling. After marketing execs from the shoe giant saw the film, they offered Spike a job at directing commercials. The idea was to use Lee’s character, the Michael Jordan-loving Mars Blackmon, and Air Jordan himself to help market the latest shoe line named after the basketball star.

Doing the Right Thing