About the Exhibition

Shelton Jackson “Spike” Lee (b. 1957) brings his signature approach to every “Spike Lee joint.” Not only a director but a writer, producer, and actor, he exercises a high level of creative control over his projects. From his Student Academy Award-winning short Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (USA, 1983) and the seminal and ever-relevant Do the Right Thing (USA, 1989) to the more recent Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman (USA, 2018) and Da 5 Bloods (USA, 2020), his extensive and provocative filmography reveals an unwavering devotion to examining race relations in the United States from a Black perspective. Lee seeks to jostle his viewers out of complacency and often employs techniques to break the fourth wall, such as having his characters tell the audience to “wake up!” His formal filmmaking techniques have been carefully honed from a lifetime spent both making and studying film, reflecting the inspiration he draws from other moviemakers working across a range of eras, genres, and global cinemas.

Director’s Inspiration: Spike Lee immersed visitors in the director's filmography, collaborations, and influences through posters, props, costumes, scripts, photographs, and more from Lee’s personal collection.

The Director's Inspiration gallery focuses on the filmography and cinematic influences of a director who has established a narrative and visual style that is unmistakably their own, traceable through bodies of work that become touchstones for other filmmakers.

Director's Inspiration: Spike Lee was curated by Assistant Curator Dara Jaffe.