“40 Years of Brother Spike Lee,” a free series celebrating the films of filmmaker Spike Lee, continues this week with the film “School Daze,” playing at the Emory Cinematheque on Sept. 9.
The “School Daze” screening is part of a broader celebration and exploration of Lee’s work. The series will look at the themes that populate Lee’s work – such as race, class, gender, and Black life in America – and will include post-film discussions with audience members and visiting film scholars. The series kicked off last week with a look at the Netflix reimagination of Lee’s 1986 film “She’s Gotta Have It,” and continues through Dec. 9 with free screenings on Wednesdays.
The series was curated by Emory professor and film scholar Beretta E. Smith-Shomade. She wanted to do the series this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of when Lee burst onto the scene with his debut feature, “She’s Gotta Have It.” In those subsequent decades, Lee has become not only one of history’s most influential Black American directors, but one of the most influential directors period.
“His stamp on things is quite vast, and his vision – whether you like it or not – it’s still significant and notable because of the volume of work that he has been able to do,” Smith-Shomade said.
Smith-Shomade said she thinks one of the reasons Lee’s influence has been so pronounced over the years comes from the combination of his very particular style and the stories he used that style to tell. Form is not just a stylistic flourish in a Spike Lee movie – it’s an equal partner with the plot, essential to understanding the emotion of the story.
“He has a way of making the form a centerpiece of the narrative,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of directors who do that and do that effectively.”
In addition to that form, Lee was telling stories that resonated with Black Americans and that most white Americans had never seen before. Whether he’s exploring racial tensions and police violence in “Do the Right Thing,” or the coming of age of a young Black girl in Brooklyn in “Crooklyn,” or the powderkeg of New York after the Sept. 11 attacks in “25th Hour,” Lee tells stories that are integral to Black culture.
“I think if he was not a filmmaker, he’d be a historian,” Smith-Shomade said. “He’s really attentive and pushing – you need to know the historical background of this thing. You need to know that this was part of a larger enterprise of colonialism, racism – something else going on in this country that is not being talked about.”
When curating the list of films for the series, Smith-Shomade wanted to show movies that best captured his style and voice. The films will screen chronologically, so audiences can see the development of his style and work over time.
The full schedule of screenings can be found below:
Sept. 9: “School Daze”
Sept. 16: “Do the Right Thing”
Sept. 23: “Jungle Fever”
Sept. 30: “Malcolm X”
Oct. 7: “Crooklyn”
Oct. 14: “Clockers”
Oct. 21: “Girl 6”
Oct. 28: “4 Little Girls”
Nov. 4: “He Got Game”
Nov. 11: “Summer of Sam”
Nov. 18: “Bamboozled”
Dec. 2: “25th Hour”
Dec. 9: “BlackKklansman”
