Spike Lee

In honor of 2023 Black History Month, we are rewinding to 2018, when HFPA member Alessandra Venezia had the privilege of interviewing Spike Lee - writer, director, actor, producer, author and educator who helped revolutionize Modern Black Cinema and inspired countless generations of black filmmakers who have continued to enrich the landscape of film and black culture. Spike’s unique voice captivated audiences from the start, with early films including She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989) and 25th Hour (2002).

A pairing made in film heaven: director and cinematographer Spike Lee and Ernest Dickerson, inseparable in almost everything they did as artists in the 80s and 90s, making six movies together, and great friends in real life. Recently the two sat down together in downtown Los Angeles, where they talked for an hour and a half in front of a rapt audience of 400 at the Colburn School of Music.

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Filmmaker Spike Lee likes to take on serious topics with a bit of humor.   HFPA journalist Alessandra Venezia sat down with the Golden Globe-nominated director in October on the patio of the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman hits US theaters on the strength of the Grand Prix it won in Cannes last May. Produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out), it tells the improbable but true story of undercover cop Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black policeman recruited by the Colorado Springs PD in the early seventies, who infiltrates the local branch of the KKK with the help of his white partner (Adam Driver).

Things have (thankfully) finally been stirring on the Croisette after a rather lukewarm start to the festival here with a couple of high profile movies hitting the big screen of the Grand Theatre Lumière. One is by perennial controversial Danish director Lars Von Trier (Antichrist, Melancholia) just back from a years-long time-out for bad behavior.

Mike Tyson in the HFPA offices Mike Tyson stopped by the HFPA offices in West Hollywood to meet members and chat about his troubled past, his book, his one-man show and his burgeoning movie career. His visit was part of the rapidly growing Round Table series which was initiated this year at the HFPA and which has so far featured international celebrities such as Lech Walesa, Julian Assange, Jeffrey Katzenberg and John Williams.