{"id":26818,"date":"2014-09-25T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=26818"},"modified":"2025-01-09T01:58:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T06:58:43","slug":"director-spike-lee-honoured-by-montreal-international-black-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/25\/director-spike-lee-honoured-by-montreal-international-black-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Director Spike Lee honoured by Montreal International Black Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spike<\/a>
Spike Lee. Photo by Jos\u00e9 Cruz\/ABr \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL\u2014Spike Lee has been described as one of the angriest filmmakers in the United States but he jokingly suggested Wednesday he was worried about a bit of ire coming his way during a\u00a0newsconference in Montreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to talk about the Rangers beating the Habs last year, are we?\u201d said the diehard sports fan, referring to the Montreal Canadiens\u2019 elimination from last season\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs at the hands of his hometown New York team.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not bringing that up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee didn\u2019t have to worry.<\/p>\n

He appeared at the Montreal International Black Film Festival where he was to be presented with the event\u2019s first Pioneer award by P.<\/p>\n

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K. Subban, the Habs co-captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great player,\u201d Lee said before the award ceremony, adding he watched Subban play in New York last season and waved at him during the pre-game skate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve noticed a lot more players of colour in the National Hockey League. The Rangers need to get one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ceremony was to precede the Canadian premiere of Lee\u2019s new film \u201cDa Sweet Blood of Jesus,\u201d a romantic horror comedy.<\/p>\n

The event coincides with the 25th anniversary of Lee\u2019s landmark film \u201cDo the Right Thing,\u201d about racial tensions in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Lee acknowledged a lot has changed in the last 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-five years ago, I would have never thought there would be an African-American president,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that happened, so there have been many great developments. But there are more African-Americans who are in poverty now than there were back 25 years ago and police are still killing black people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that while there are more black stars, \u201cblack people are not taking over Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee, who is credited with helping revolutionize modern black cinema, said there is still a need for more diversity\u2014including more women, Asians, and Hispanics\u2014on TV and behind the scenes in TV and movies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSports in America has eclipsed Hollywood as far as diversity and I\u2019m not just talking about on the field, on the court, either,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn high-power positions in sports, African-Americans have jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added it would make good business sense in any kind of enterprise to reflect the diversity of the population.<\/p>\n

Besides filmmaking, Lee also teaches at New York University\u2019s graduate film school. He said his students told him about independent crowdfunding, which he used for \u201cDa Sweet Blood of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know no studio was going to make this one,\u201d he said of the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s flying through the air, there\u2019s not big special effects.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s too small a film for them. It\u2019s the same reason I raised money for \u2018She\u2019s Gotta Have it.\u2019 No studio was going to make that film, not back in 1986.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee has often been blunt in his criticism of the U.S. and wasn\u2019t shy about those feelings Wednesday, saying the country is a violent place built on the genocide of aboriginals and slavery.<\/p>\n

He denied he\u2019s an angry man.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not angry all the time but there\u2019s a lot of reasons for people to be angry in general for what\u2019s happened in the\u00a0world, not just America\u2014the environment, wars, a whole bunch of stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff to be angry about, but I don\u2019t know anyone who walks around in a 24-hour state of anger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee, whose mother and grandmother were teachers, cited education as one way to solve some of society\u2019s ills, pointing out half of black teenagers in the U.S. don\u2019t graduate from high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a direct line between the dropout rate and the prison population.\u201d<\/p>\n

He insisted success is possible but people have to work for it.<\/p>\n

And, despite his criticism, Lee says there\u2019s plenty to like about the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love America,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can still love America and criticize it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the greatest country in the\u00a0world.\u00a0Not to disrespect Canada, O Canada, but you can just do a lot of stuff there. If you\u2019re driven and you\u2019ve got a dream you can make it happen, more than every other country in the\u00a0world.\u00a0That\u2019s why everybody\u2019s trying to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL\u2014Spike Lee has been described as one of the angriest filmmakers in the United States but he jokingly suggested Wednesday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hollywood","mauthors-nelson-wyatt","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281401,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818\/revisions\/281401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}