For a man whose films are often
provocative, some might even say incendiary, director
Spike Lee was awfully subdued at SIIF’s tribute to him
last night at the Egyptian Theatre. He dutifully answered
all the questions posed by Moviecitynews’ David Poland but
rarely did he flash the kind of rhetorical sharpness that
has made him such good copy for reporters over the years.
Lee is a smart, opinionated guy but he was too much the
gentleman to be controversial. I suppose winning a career
achievement award calls for an excess of politeness but it
made for a duller evening than might have been
expected.

Nevertheless, a number of interesting things came up
during the course of the two-hour Q&A (which also
included plenty of film clips from his impressively wide-
ranging career.)

1) The success of NYU film school grad Jim Jarmusch and
his low-budget movie STRANGER THAN PARADISE convinced Lee
that a film career was indeed “do-able” for him.

2) Director Ang Lee was a classmate of Lee’s at NYU,
and knew only a couple words in English at the time (acc.
to Lee.)

3) SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT is the only film of his he just
can’t bear to watch anymore.

4) While filming DO THE RIGHT THING, John Turturro, who
plays a racist Italian-American in the movie, used to kid
Lee that he wanted publicity photos of Lee putting his arm
around Turturro’s shoulder to appear in Jet and Ebony
magazines .. so he could ride the New York subway
safely.

5) Speaking of jokes, Lee said he and Denzel Washington
used to joke about needing to carry their passports with
them at all times (in case they had to leave the country
in a hurry) while they were filming the controversial
MALCOM X.

6) Lee’s amazed there hasn’t yet been a feature film
about Martin Luther King, Jr.

7) In his appearance at the end of MALCOLM X, Nelson
Mandela wouldn’t utter Malcolm X’s controversial phrase
“by any means necessary,” since he was in the middle of an
election run at the time.

8) Lee pays for his New York Knicks’ season
tickets.

9) Lee once considered making a film of August Wilson’s
award-winning play FENCES, but when Wilson turned in his
script it was almost identical to his play. Lee found it
unworkable.

10) When fielding a question from the audience about
the new “social media,” Lee implored kids to read a book
and get off Facebook and Twitter. And he dismissed
“sexting” as “just crazy!”

11) His latest film, a documentary about Kobe Bryant,
was inspired by a documentary about French soccer star
Zidane.

12) He’s now working on a film about a black physicist
who’s supposedly invented a time machine.