And came away a little breathless, a little overwhelmed and at times almost got ‘lost in the sauce’!
“No, I am not Chinese.”
With that pronouncement Avant Garde film maker Spike Lee laid to rest what was on the minds of most of the delegates at the recent Global Brand Forum in Singapore, an obvious allusion to his last name. Spike Lee does not suffer fools. At a special gathering for film students as part of the GBF event, he dared students to stand for themselves and find their own voice: “ I can’t tell you what to do, everyone has a story inside of them. And you just have to look hard and find your story,” while twisting the diamond stud in his ear.
Spike constantly stares into space and speaks slowly, deliberately, like a professor. It’s a dispensation, not a discussion; he does not look you in the eye. The New York Magazine once wrote, “Spike Lee is not the warmest guy in the world, but he cares about people, but it’s unclear how much he likes them.”
Into its fifth successful year, the Global Brand Forum, called the Davos of Branding, was held at the Ritz Carlton Millenia in Singapore On August 14 and 15. Spike looked a little tried during his Singapore gig. Perhaps the drinking at Harry’s at Boat Quay the night before played into his jet lag after the ‘longest flight in the world’ to Singapore. But he was a sport all the same, and getting up close with ‘de man’ was a treat ADOI was not going to miss!
When asked at the Forum what he thought about China’s economic might, he swirled his head a few times and said, “Hey, from what I saw of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, even Spielberg couldn’t have beaten that!” in glaring reference to Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal as artistic adviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, after almost a year of trying unsuccessfully to prod President Hu Jintao of China to do more to try to end Sudan’s attacks in the Darfur region.
“I think it is very important that films make people look at what they’ve forgotten.”
Brooklyn-based Spike is a cutting-edge American film director, writer, actor and author. His films challenge cultural assumptions about race, class and gender identity. His debut film, She’s Gotta Have It, earned the Prix de Jeunesse Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986 and his third film which he also acted in, Do the Right Thing garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won Best Film and Best Director awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1989. His epic drama, Malcolm X, received two Oscar nominations. He also directed Inside Man and is the ad filmmaker of the famous Orange and Nike Air Jordan commercials.
“I don’t dictate, you don’t dictate to Stevie Wonder, not successfully”
A fervent fan of Barack Obama, Spike Lee recently slammed Rev. Jesse Jackson for his scathing comments about Barack Obama about Obama talking ‘down’ to the black community and said that he wanted to cut Obama’s genitals off.
“I am very disappointed in Jesse Jackson,” lamented Spike, “I think jealousy has to be somewhere in there. It is really makes Jesse look bad. He is a friend, and I know he has apologized for it, but understand in life, sometimes you have your moment, And this is not Jesse’s time right now. This is Barack Obama’s time – and I think the Reverend is having a problem dealing with that. I’m for Mr. Obama, I think he’s gonna win.
And it’s going to be a better day not only for the United States but for the world.”
“I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.”
It is obvious Spike’s primary project to tell stories about African-Americans. The orbiting forces of his artistic universe are injustice, prejudice, oppression. Once, when collecting a Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions he made to the film industry and the community, he reminded, ”We have to get back to stressing education because this gangster rap stuff is taking us down the wrong area. We have young black children growing up thinking that if you get straight A’s, act intelligent and try to get good grades, that somehow they’re acting white or that they’re selling out,” he said. “But if you’re on the corner drinking a 40, smoking a blunt and holding your nuts, then you’re black. Something is wrong!”
HAVING HIS SAY WITH MAKE MY DAY ICON
Spike never shied away from controversial statements and actions involving race relations. In 2002, after headline-grabbing remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott regarding Senator Strom Thurmond’s failed presidential bid, Lee charged that Lott was a “card-carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan” on ABC’s Good Morning America.
At the Cannes Film Festival this year he criticised director Clint Eastwood for not depicting black Marines in his own WWII film, Flags of Our Fathers. Citing historical accuracy, Eastwood responded that his film was specifically about the soldiers who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima, pointing out that while black soldiers did fight at Iwo Jima, the U.S. military was segregated during WWII, and none of the men who raised the flag were black. Eastwood also pointed out that his 1988 film Bird, about the Jazz musician Charlie Parker featured 90% black actors, and that his upcoming movie about post-apartheid South Africa will not feature a white actor in the role of Nelson Mandela, angrily saying that Spike should “shut his face”. Lee responded that Eastwood was acting like an “angry old man”, and argued that despite making two Iwo Jima films back to back, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, “there was not one black soldier in both of those films”.
Miracle at St. Anna
We were also treated to a director’s snippet of Spike’s upcoming film, his second world war film: Miracle at St. Anna. It chronicles the story of four black American soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy during World War II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.
We don’t know if this Emmy-winning director, writer and actor will be back on our shores anytime soon, but this glimpse into what makes this radical, bespectacled maestro tick was most definitely the stuff of dreams.