Filmmaker Spike Lee gives advice to students

Nathan Chiantella / photo editor Filmmaker Spike Lee spoke at JMU Monday night.

Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee told an audience gathered in Wilson Hall Auditorium Monday, "Utilize your four years here to determine what it is that you love — not where you'll make the most money."

About 400 people attended Lee's speech, according to freshman Jeremy Paredes, University Program Board director of media and public relations.

Creator of such social commentary films as "Do the Right Thing" and "25th Hour," Lee began by urging the audience to vote in November. He expressed concern about America being "hoodwinked, bamboozled" by the George W. Bush administration into supporting the war in Iraq.

Lee said the American political atmosphere currently is shrouded with passing the blame. He added that since Sept. 11, 2001, Bush has used the boogeyman to scare Americans and achieve an ulterior agenda.

Many forms of the media are being used as "narcotics to numb your brain," Lee said. "Young people have to turn it around."

Freshman Ashley Lakner said, "So much of our society revolves around trivial matters. A lot of Lee's films have worked to tackle real issues and I definitely appreciate that about him."

Lee discussed his film career, which began in the summer of 1977.

Lee said that his childhood dream involved playing second base for the New York Mets but "genetics didn't have that in mind for me."

That same summer, while Lee was on break from Morehouse College in Alabama, a serial killer moved about New York City. Spike used a Super 8mm camera to record random shots of pan-icked citizens and then comiled them into a film

He then decided to declare his major and become a filmmaker. Lee edited the film again and rereleased "Summer of Sam" (1999) which later starred John Leguizamo.

After graduating from Morehouse, Lee attended New York University's graduate film program. Lee said he used NYU as an equipment rental house with a cast and crew of students to help each other make films.

Lee said that he chose to attend NYU because he failed to achieve the "astronomical" Graduate Records Examination (GRE) scores required by the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles.

Lee won the Student Academy Award in 1980 for his feature film, "Joe's Bed Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads." Lee said his success seemed fated and did not require effort.

"I was young and dumb," Lee said of his apathetic search for employment. He waited for a feature film to drop into his lap, but realized it would not come without effort.

In 1986 at the Cannes Film Festival, Lee released his first major debut "She's Gotta Have It," at a production cost of $175,000. The film grossed $8.5 million at the box office.

Lee had received a $15,000 grant to produce the film and the rest was paid with "pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters," according to Lee. He and his cast even used recycled can and bottle deposits to finance film.

Lee said that his work helped to catalyze a second Harlem Renaissance by putting "African American riches on the screen."

For much of cinematic history, Lee said that blacks had been "relegated to the ghettos" in roles stereotyped for "baffoons and ‘coons.'"

Lee used the 2004 film, "Cold Mountain," directed by Anthony Minghella as an example, stating that it was insane to have a film on the Civil War without one slave being shown. Lee said that the stereotypical character of Mammy from "Gone with the Wind" had more "dignity and humanity into stifiling roles."

Lee also criticized popular "ghetto culture," and said that peer pressure today had many blacks incorrectly assume that they can only be real to their heritage if they were "rappers, drug dealers or ballers."

Lee said it is shameful that "more blacks are in prison today than enrolled in college." Lee added that BET culture stressed "dumbing down" to fit in, rather than stressing education.

"We did not ridicule anyone who was smart," Lee said. "It's changed. If you're African-American today with [intellectual] qualities, you're ostracized."

During a question-and-answer period that followed his remarks, Lee said that internships were available for his latest project that will begin shooting in August 2004. To apply, fax a cover letter and resumé to 40 Acres and a Mule Productions at 718-624-200.