Posted by | Cyrena Rose
Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee was born in Atlanta, GA on this day in 1957.
Spike Lee is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983. Lee’s movies have examined race relations, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty and other political issues. Lee has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award. He has also received two Academy Award nominations.
Lee and his family moved to Brooklyn, New York when he was a small child; his mother nicknamed him “Spike” due to his tough nature. In Brooklyn he attended John Dewey High School. He attended school at Morehouse College in Atlanta and developed his film making skills at Clark Atlanta University. After graduating from Morehouse, he enrolled in New York University’s Tisch School of Arts, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Film & Television.
In 1985, Lee began work on his first feature film, She’s Gotta Have It. With a budget of $175,000, the film was shot in two weeks. When the film was released in 1986, it grossed over $7,000,000 at the U.S. box office. The reception of She’s Gotta Have It led Lee down a second career avenue. Marketing executives from Nike offered Lee a job directing commercials for the company. They wanted to pair Lee’s character from She’s Gotta Have It, the Michael Jordan-loving Mars Blackmon, and Jordan himself in their marketing campaign for the Air Jordan line. Through the marketing wing of 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has also directed commercials for Converse, Jaguar, Taco Bell and Ben & Jerry’s.
Lee is known for and frequently uses a technique he calls the “double dolly.” This is where the camera and the subject are placed on a dolly and pushed through the scene. This makes the subject look like they are floating or gliding.
Although Lee has made an array of films called “A Spike Lee Joint”, his landmark film Do The Right Thing garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1989.
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He is married to Tanya Lee Lewis with whom he has two daughters & is known to have an obsessive love of the New York Knicks.
