By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times
For 40 years, critically acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee has delivered movies that educate, elevate and entertain while also displaying the richness and diversity of the Black experience. This month, Lee fans in Birmingham can see some of the Academy Award winner’s most celebrated films on the big screen once again or for the first time.
Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema will showcase 10 of Lee’s most beloved movies for its Summer of Spike series, set for July 17 through August 6.
“This summer marks 40 years since Spike Lee’s debut feature, and I could think of no more exciting filmmaker to highlight across three weekends,” Sidewalk Cinema Program Coordinator Corey Craft told the Birmingham Times. “And even though we’re showing 10 of his movies, this series could be twice as long. Virtually everything he’s ever made is worth seeing and discussing, and we hope our series at Sidewalk introduces new audiences to those discussions and to American cinema’s bravest voice.”
The films scheduled to be screened include his breakout hit Do the Right Thing (1989), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The series will also feature the historical epic Malcolm X (1992) and the biographical crime dramedy BlacKkKlansman (2018), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix Award.
Other films on the Summer of Spike schedule include School Daze (1988), Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995), Bamboozled (2000), and Inside Man (2006).
“Spike Lee’s filmography is one of the most significant and vital careers in American cinema,” Craft said. “His work is filled with important conversations, provocative stylistic choices, unanswerable questions, and sheer cinematic exuberance, celebrating the history of film while pushing it into uncharted territory. And among directors from the second half of the 20th century, Lee stands out as the filmmaker least afraid to hold a mirror up to American society and unflinchingly show us at our best and our worst.”
Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema is in the heart of downtown Birmingham’s historic theatre district in the Pizitz Building, located at 1821 2nd Ave. N. Birmingham, AL 35203. For Summer of Spike showtimes and tickets, visit sidewalkfest.com.
