While his nemesis Tyler Perry is feeding everyone such bullshit that if you put your trust in God and persevere, than any career in the world is possible (especially when you've made millions spoon feeding black people their own coonery and bafoonery), Spike Lee went on a profanity-laced rant of passion while doing a Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival. Apparently Chris Rock asked Lee if his film, ‘Red Hook Summer’ would have gotten more of a promotional push if it had the backing of a studio. Here's how Spike responded:
“We never went to the studios with this film. I bought a camera and said we’re gonna do this motherf—–g film ourselves.[...]I didn’t need a motherf—–g studio telling me something about Red Hook! They know nothing about black people. Nothing. And they’re gonna give me notes about what a young 13-year-old black boy and girl do in Red Hook? F–k no!”
“So we need to film ourselves so we wouldn’t have any notes, because we feel there’s a motherf—–g audience for this film — excuse my profanity, my wife is looking at me like I’m crazy — but I don’t know what else we can do. We had to do it ourselves. We shot ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ for twelve days back in 1986. And when I waited for Universal to do the sequel to ‘Inside Man,’ my biggest endeavor, I couldn’t wait any longer! We had to do it ourselves!”
The LA Times is claiming the reason for Spike's anger may have to do with the fact that studios are afraid to touch Red Hook Summer because if the film's "hateful" undertones in regards of religion:
It didn’t help — or, rather, it made things more surreal — that the voluble Lee had just shown what was by any standard one of his most audacious films in years, a movie that had been shot in ultra-secrecy over just 19 days on a few Brooklyn blocks. For about two-thirds of its running time a gritty and music-heavy street drama about an assortment of neighborhood characters (with religion instead of race as its main Lee preoccupation this time around), the film in its last section takes a turn to the shocking.
Without giving too much away, we’ll just say that a main character is revealed with little warning to have committed a heinous act. A scene involving a sex act and the Bible is involved, and we won’t sugarcoat it — it will be polarizing even to hardened viewers. In the lobby afterward, normally jaded festival-goers were arguing over whether the movie, which does not yet have U.S. distribution, was hateful and/or misanthropic. Even the actors admitted some scenes were hard for them to watch.
Spike is absolutely right. if you want something done — if you want our stories told we have to do it ourselves. Studios are in the business of making money, not telling real compelling stories about people that you and I can actually relate to. So I understand Spike's frustration with the attitudes and the fears that constantly surround studios. it's easier to remake the same film and greenlight countless unnecessary sequels than make a film of quality. I also think he still has some animosity towards Hollywood who continue to give Tyler Perry the money to make his coonfests. I need to see this film to make my own objections, but I do have to say all this controversy coming out about it has really peaked my interest (which is the best kind of publicity you can ask for).
Check out the Q&A below (skip to the 15:15 mark for his rant):
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