1-7-03
FILMMAKER SPIKE LEE TO SPEAK AT PENN STATE BEHREND
Critically-acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee, director of award-winning films such as Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, and Crooklyn, will speak at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, on Wednesday, January 15, at 7:30 p.m. in Erie Hall. His presentation is free and open to the public.
Lee's work is technically original, politically inspired, and often controversial. His eleventh film, He Got Game, starring Denzel Washington, was released in 1998, and instantly hit #1 in the box office. Other recent projects include an Academy Award-nominated documentary for HBO, 4 Little Girls, about the 1963 bombing of a Baptist Church in Birmingham, and the films, Get On The Bus and Girl 6.
Born in Atlanta and raised in Brooklyn, Spike attended Morehouse College in Atlanta. After graduation, he continued his education at New York University. His NYU student film was showcased at Lincoln Center and won the Student Award of the Academy of Motion Pictures. Lee received his Master of Fine Arts degree in film production and then founded 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks (a production office), 40 Acres and A Mule Musicworks (a record company), and Spike's Joint (a retail company), all based in Brooklyn, where he resides.
Lee's debut film, the independently produced comedy, She's Gotta Have It (1986), earned him the Prix de Jeunesse Award at the Cannes Film Festival and set him at the forefront of the Black Wave in American cinema. School Daze (1988), his second feature, was not only highly profitable, but it also helped launch the careers of several young black actors. But it was with Lee's third effort that he joined the ranks of top movie makers. Do the Right Thing (1989), which explored urban racial tensions, won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film and Director awards from the L.A. Film Critics Association.
The Penn State Behrend Speaker Series series is sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs and is partially funded by the John Nesbit Rees and Sarah Henne Rees Foundation. It has twice won the National Association for Campus Activities' Best Lecture Series Award. An interpreter for deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members will be visible at each lecture, and assistive listening devices are available upon request from the Office of Student Activities at (814) 898-6171.
These services are made possible through funding from Penn State's Equal Opportunity Planning Committee. All lectures are also taped for broadcast on AM1450/WPSE Penn State Erie radio, and on 91.3 WQLN-FM. For more information about the speaker series, call Penn State Behrend at (814) 898-6171.
Contact:
Loretta Brandon
814-898-6063
e-mail: lzb6@psu.edu