A rare look at Spike Lee’s creative appropriation of the documentary film genre.
In this groundbreaking book, Delphine Letort sheds light on a neglected part of Spike Lee’s filmmaking by offering a rare look at his creative engagement with the genre of documentary filmmaking. Ranging from history to sports and music, Lee has tackled a diversity of topics in such nonfiction films as 4 Little Girls, A Huey P. Newton Story, Jim Brown: All-American, and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Letort analyzes the narrative and aesthetic discourses that structure these films and calls attention to Lee’s technical skills and narrative-framing devices. Drawing on film and media studies, African American studies, and cultural theories, she examines the sociological value of Lee’s investigations into contemporary culture and also explores the ethics of his commitment to a genre characterized by its claim to truth.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Foreword: Agency as Remembering and Retelling
Mark A. Reid
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Making of Spike Lee’s Nonfiction Joints
2. History and Memory: The African American Experience
3. Media and Race
4. The Legacy of Black Nationalism: Culture and Politics
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Mark A. Reid is Associate Professor of English and Film at the University of Florida. He is the author of Redefining Black Film, editor of Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’, and co-editor of Le Cinema Noir Americain, and is an editorial board member of Cinema Journal, Jump Cut, and Wide Angle.
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