Spike LeeFilmography

Time Traveler

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Ronald Mallett's touching tale of his near-lifelong goal to create a time machine to travel back and warn his father of his impending death is adapted for the screen by writer/director Spike Lee in this Forty Acres & a Mule Filmworks production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide Read More

Saint John of Las Vegas

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Steve Buscemi, Romany Malco, Peter Dinklage, Sarah Silverman

Synopsis: A compulsive gambler attempts to cure his addiction by moving from Las Vegas to Albuquerque and working at an auto insurance company, only to find old temptations cropping up once again when he's sent out to investigate a dubious car accident just outside of Sin City. After a string of bad luck at Read More

Passing Strange

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Stew, Daniel Breaker, de'Adre Aziza, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo

Synopsis: Oscar-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee turns his camera toward the stage for this filmed performance of the acclaimed Broadway musical by singer/songwriter Stew and his creative partner Heidi Rodewald. Developed at the Sundance Theater Lab, the story follows a young black man from Los Angeles as he Read More

Kobe Doin' Work

Crew: Director

Actors: Kobe Bryant

Synopsis: Filmmaker and noted basketball fan Spike Lee presents a close-up look at a day in the life of one of the game's biggest stars in this documentary. Kobe Bryant is one of the top players on one of the NBA's top teams, the Los Angeles Lakers, and he receives the kind of adulation (and paychecks) that Read More

Miracle at St. Anna

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Valentina Cervi

Synopsis: Spike Lee's World War II film Miracle at St. Anna begins in 1983 with Hector Negron, a veteran of that war, unexpectedly shooting a customer dead. Police discover that the suspect, a quiet postal worker, kept a statue head worth millions of dollars in his apartment. An eager young reporter (Joseph Gordon-Levitt Read More

40 x 15

Synopsis: Director Olivier Jahan offers an glimpse into The Director's Fortnight, a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival conceived by a group of filmmakers known as the Société des Réalisateurs de Films who sought to counter the academism of the main part of the world-renowned festival. Pierre-Henri Deleau Read More

Lights! Action! Music!

Synopsis: The documentary Lights! Action! Music! consists primarily of interviews with composers, directors, and actors who explain the many challenges involved in writing original music for motion pictures. Among the many famous names who appear on camera or whose work is used during the film are Francis Read More

Edge of Outside

Synopsis: A documentary produced for the Turner Classic Movies cable station, Edge of Outside surveys the careers of various filmmakers who have attempted to bring their uncompromised visions to the screen. Interspersing clips of classic films, the filmmakers take a look at the careers of such famous Read More

Inside Man

Crew: Director

Actors: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Synopsis: The volatile showdown between a determined cop and a perfectionist bank robber is sent spiraling toward disaster when a scheming power broker steps in to take control of the situation in this hair-raising heist flick directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, and Jodie Foster Read More

How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It)

Actors: Dick Hehmeyer

Synopsis: Melvin Van Peebles created a new style of African-American filmmaking in 1971, when on a shoestring budget he made Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a violent action picture about a sex-show stud on the run from the police that below the surface served as a call for revolution in the black Read More

Shark: Pilot

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee takes the helm for the pilot episode of this CBS series concerning charismatic, unwaveringly self-confident defense attorney Sebastian Stark (James Woods). Prompted to begin working for the prosecutors after one of his cases has an unexpected outcome and he Read More

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Harry Belafonte

Synopsis: Academy Award-nominated director Spike Lee (the guiding force behind the critically acclaimed documentary 4 Little Girls) turns to nonfiction filmmaking once again with the heart-wrenching marathon work When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, produced by Lee's Forty Acres and a Mule Read More

Miracle's Boys

Crew: Director

Actors: Sean Nelson, Pooch Hall, Julito McCullum

Synopsis: Miracle's Boys tells the tale of African-American brothers who must survive many daily stresses by trusting, relying on, and loving each other. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

All the Invisible Children

Crew: Director

Actors: Adam Bila, Elysee Rounamba, Rodrigue Ouattara, Ahmed Ouedraogo, Harouna Ouedraogo

Synopsis: Omnibus films attained renewed popularity during the 1990s and 2000s; this particular seven-episode film-a-sketch arrived during that period, and involved several top-tiered international filmmakers including John Woo, Spike Lee, Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica and three others. Each helmer was asked Read More

She Hate Me

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington

Synopsis: Directed by Spike Lee, She Hate Me follows John Henry "Jack" Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), who is fired from a posh job in biotechnology after informing the proper authorities of some sketchy business dealings from within the company. Unemployed and desperate for some quick cash, Jack accepts a Read More

Spike and Jim

Actors: Spike Lee

Sucker Free City

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Ben Crowley, Ken Leung, Anthony Mackie, Darris Love, Laura Allen, Malieek Straughter, Kathy Baker

Synopsis: Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee makes the leap from the big screen to the small screen for this Showtime drama concerning the battle waged between black, white, an Asian gangs for control of the San Francisco streets. A modern-day melting pot that has become home to some of the vicious street-gangs Read More

Good Fences

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Zachary Simmons Glover, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Ashley Archer

Synopsis: A black family gets a first-hand look at the trials and tribulations of upward mobility and suburban segregation in this pointed comedy. In 1973, Tom (Danny Glover) is an African-American attorney who is determined to raise himself up by his own bootstraps from his position near the bottom of the Read More

25th Hour

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox

Synopsis: A man has one day to put his life in order before a long stretch in prison in this drama directed by Spike Lee. Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) is a man who came from a working class family in New York. Monty's best friends Jacob (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) went on to Read More

Jim Brown: All-American

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Jim Brown, Dr. Walter Beach, Hank Aaron, Bernie Casey, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.

Synopsis: Spike Lee's documentary on the football star, movie actor, and social activist is a no-frills examination of a man who has rarely been out of the public spotlight for over 45 years. Jim Brown talks about the various phases of his life, from his boyhood in the all-black community of St. Simons Read More

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, Marko Haavisto Ja Poutahaukat, Ana Sofia Liano, Pelayo Suarez

Synopsis: Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates Read More

We Was Robbed

Crew: Director

Lisa Picard is Famous

Actors: Daniel London, Griffin Dunne, L.M. Kit Carson

Synopsis: Actor-turned-filmmaker Griffin Dunne directs this mockumentary about the lives of struggling thespians. The film focuses on Lisa Picard (Laura Kirk), a fledgling actress about to burst on the scene thanks to a bit part in a made-for-TV movie. She is followed around by Dunne as she makes her Read More

3 A.M.

Crew: Producer

Actors: Danny Glover, Pam Grier, Michelle Rodriguez, Sergej Trifunovic, Sarita Choudhury

Synopsis: New York City may be the city that never sleeps, but that means some people have to stay awake all night to look after the folks whose days begin after the sun goes down; this made-for-premium-cable drama looks at a group of cabbies trying to get by while working the night shift. The Lady Luck Cab Read More

A Huey P. Newton Story

Crew: Director

Actors: Roger Guenveur Smith

Synopsis: Spike Lee directed this made-for-cable adaptation of Roger Guenveur Smith's one-man show about the life and times of Huey P. Newton, who as one of the founders and key strategists of the Black Panther Party was among the most respected and feared figures in the Black Power movement of the late Read More

The Concert For New York City

Synopsis: In the wake of the attacks on New York City and Washington D.C. on September 11, 2001, many figures in the entertainment community stepped forward to offer their talents to raise money towards relief efforts for the victims and their survivors. On October 20, 2001, some of the biggest names in Read More

Bamboozled

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport

Synopsis: Writer and director Spike Lee casts his satiric gaze on racism in American television and how America's racist past still impacts the present in this biting comedy. Pierre Delacroix (Damon Wayans) is an astute, Harvard-educated African-American writer working for an independent television network Read More

The Original Kings of Comedy

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, Bernie Mac

Synopsis: In 1997, four of America's leading African-American stand-up comedians -- Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Bernie Mac, and Cedric The Entertainer -- joined forces for a concert tour that became one of the top money-earning attractions of recent years, consistently selling out 10,000 to 15,000 seat Read More

Love & Basketball

Crew: Producer

Actors: Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Debbi Morgan

Synopsis: A young African-American couple navigates the tricky paths of romance and athletics in this drama. Quincy McCall (Omar Epps) and Monica Wright (Sanaa Lathan) grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also Read More

Afrocentricity

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Seven short films from up-and-coming African-American filmmakers are collected on this video release. Breakdown stars Vanessa Williams as a traumatized witness to a shooting at a bus station. A Gut Feeling follows two police offers out on an unexpectedly eventful call; Spike Lee served as Read More

The Best Man

Crew: Producer

Actors: Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Monica Calhoun

Synopsis: In this romantic comedy, a writer finds out the hard way about the consequences of walking a fine line between fiction and real life. Harper (Taye Diggs) is an author whose first novel is soon to be published, just as he's been asked to be Best Man at the wedding of his friends Lance (Morris Chestnut Read More

Summer of Sam

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Anthony LaPaglia

Synopsis: In the summer of 1977, a serial killer who called himself Son of Sam (real name David Berkowitz) held New York City in terror as he went on a killing spree, periodically writing letters to New York's media in which he took full responsibility for the murders and made clear that he intended to kill Read More

Pavarotti & Friends for the Children of Liberia

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This concert film features Luciano Pavarotti collaborating with some very special guest stars in order to raise money for the children of Liberia. The opera legend performs with a variety of stars including Natalie Cole, The Spice Girls, Trisha Yearwood, Celine Dion, and Jon Bon Jovi. ~ Perry Read More

He Got Game

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Milla Jovovich, Rosario Dawson, Hill Harper

Synopsis: Denzel Washington and writer-director Spike Lee team for the third time with this contemporary basketball drama focusing on a promising athlete, the son of a convict-father. Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) has been in prison for six years when tough prison-warden Wyatt (Ned Beatty) tells Read More

The Directors: Spike Lee

Synopsis: Brilliant and always controversial filmmaker Spike Lee has directed some of the finest films to come out of America in the '80s and '90s including She's Gotta Have It, Do the Right Thing, and Malcolm X. This documentary pays tribute to his career and achievements. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide Read More

4 Little Girls

Crew: Director, Producer

Synopsis: Director Spike Lee made his first feature-length documentary with this powerful story of the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, AL, in 1963, which took the lives of four girls, ages 11 through 14. The shocking incident received national press attention and became a rallying point Read More

Girl 6

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Theresa Randle, Isaiah Washington, Spike Lee, Jenifer Lewis, Debi Mazar

Synopsis: Spike Lee directed this comedy-drama about a woman who falls into a career in phone sex. An African-American woman (Theresa Randle) who aspires to a career as an actress endures a number of dispiriting jobs (handing out leaflets and working as a coat check girl) before reaching the end of her rope Read More

Get on the Bus

Crew: Director, Executive Producer

Actors: Richard Belzer, Ossie Davis, De'Aundre Bonds, Charles S. Dutton, Andre Braugher, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Gabriel Casseus, Albert Hall, Harry J. Lennix, Hill Harper, Bernie Mac, Wendell Pierce, Roger Guenveur Smith, Isaiah Washington, Steve White

Synopsis: Released one year to the day after the 1995 Million Man March, in which a million African-American men marched peacefully in Washington, D.C. in a bid for greater unity and understanding, Spike Lee's Get On the Bus follows a group of black men who take a charter bus from Los Angeles to the rally Read More

The Fine Art of Separating People From Their Money

Synopsis: The Fine Art of Separating People From Their Money is a provocative voyage through the evolution of commercials. Dennis Hopper hosts this unique look at the commercial as an artistic medium. The film explores how humor, art and shock-value are used to promote products. Featured clips from classic Read More

Tales From the Hood

Crew: Producer

Actors: Clarence Williams III, Corbin Bernsen, Joe Torry, Wings Hauser, Anthony Griffith, Michael Massee

Synopsis: Boyz N the Hood meets Tales from the Crypt in this alternately horrific, funny, and socially conscious anthology film. The four grim vignettes are framed by the tale of three street hoods who break into Mr. Simm's inner-city funeral home to find a stash of drugs. The mortician puts them off, by Read More

New Jersey Drive

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Sharron Corley, Gabriel Casseus, Saul Stein, Gwen McGee, Andre Moore

Synopsis: New Jersey Drive opens with Jason (Gabriel Casseus) heading off to juvenile detention then unfolds in flashback as, chronologically, the incidents leading to his arrest surface one by one. First the audience sees his violence and poverty-ridden project; next his go-nowhere delinquent friends are Read More

Clockers

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, Keith David

Synopsis: Based on Richard Price's grim best-seller, and directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay co-written with Price, Clockers takes the structure of a police procedural to build a chilling portrait of despair, hope, and the unanswered problem of black-on-black crime in an urban housing project. The Read More

Lumière and Company

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Lumière brothers' first films, filmmakers Sarah Moon and Philippe Poulet challenged 39 renowned international directors to each complete a 52-second film using the original Cinematographe camera under the conditions endured by the brothers. The result Read More

First Works: A Revealing Look at Today's Greatest Directors, Vol. 1

Synopsis: This documentary examines the first films of some top Hollywood directors, featuring interviews with the filmmakers and clips of their early student films, as well as some of their blockbuster hits. The program explores how each director learned from early mistakes, and seeks to illuminate the Read More

The Cronkite Reports: The Faltering Dream

Crooklyn

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, David Patrick Kelly, Zelda Harris, Carlton Williams

Synopsis: Spike Lee and his siblings Cinque Lee and Joie Lee co-wrote this nostalgic but unglamorized look at a family growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s, inspired by their own childhood. Woody Carmichael (Delroy Lindo) is a jazz musician whose career is in a slump; he once made a good living as a session Read More

Backbeat

Actors: Sheryl Lee, Stephen Dorff, Ian Hart, Gary Bakewell, Chris O'Neill

Synopsis: The Beatles' early days as a struggling bar band are depicted in this fact-based drama, which tells the little-known story of original member Stuart Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff). A close friend of John Lennon, Sutcliffe acts as the band's original bassist, accompanying them on their early gigs in Read More

Ghostwriter: Into the Comics

Synopsis: This film is part of a past PBS television series that featured young people solving mysteries. The popular series was acclaimed for its educational value, as it taught children the skills of cooperation, reading, writing, logic, deduction, and problem solving. In this episode, renowned film Read More

Hoop Dreams

Actors: William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates, Sheila Agee, Gene Pingatore

Synopsis: This documentary about the aspirations of high-school basketball players from inner city Chicago won awards from the Sundance film festival, the New York Film Critics Circle, and the Academy Award (Oscar) for best editing. Two young men are followed during their entire high-school career Read More

D.R.O.P. Squad

Crew: Producer

Actors: Eriq La Salle, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Ving Rhames, Kasi Lemmons, Leonard Thomas

Synopsis: In this politically- and racially-themed satire, Bruford Jackson Jr. (Eriq LaSalle) is an African-American advertising man working for a major agency who has been assigned to campaigns selling Mumblin' Jack Malt Liquor and General Otis' Fried Chicken (complete with the Confederate flag on the Read More

The Last Party

Actors: Robert Downey, Sr., Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, Robert Downey, Jr.

Synopsis: In this humorous documentary, Robert Downey, Jr. shares his views of politics, attitudes and himself while travelling across the country in 1992. He spends a special amount of time at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Downey includes brief interviews by such luminaries as Oliver Stone, Spike Lee Read More

Seven Songs for Malcolm X

Actors: Spike Lee

Synopsis: This short documentary is a meditation on the life and work of the famous public figure from time the American civil rights movement, Malcom X, whose black militancy was at least as electrifying to the people of the day as was his affiliation with the Nation of Islam and his later conversion to Read More

Malcolm X

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Angela Bassett, Al Freeman, Jr., Delroy Lindo, Albert Hall

Synopsis: Writer-director Spike Lee's epic portrayal of the life and times of the slain civil rights leader Malcolm X begins with the cross-cut imagery of the police beating of black motorist Rodney King juxtaposed with an American flag burning into the shape of the letter X. When the film's narrative Read More

Jungle Fever

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee, Anthony Quinn, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee

Synopsis: Spike Lee defines "jungle fever" as sexual attraction between members of two races. In his film Jungle Fever, he examines the repercussions of an interracial affair upon two very distinct communities. Wesley Snipes is Flipper, a happily married and successful architect, and Annabella Sciorra is Read More

Fishbone: The Reality of My Surroundings

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This is a collection of Fishbone's music videos, including "Modern Industry," "Party at Ground Zero," "Freddie's Dead," and "Sunless Saturday." It is directed by Spike Lee. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Lonely in America

Actors: Ranjit Chowdhry, Tirlok Malik, Adelaide Miller, Robert Kessler, David Toney

Synopsis: One-time film editor Barry Brown helmed this serio-comedy about an East Indian native (Ranjit Chowdhry) who immigrates to New York City and stumbles his way onto the corporate fast-track. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Mo' Better Blues

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter, Songwriter

Actors: Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Wesley Snipes, Joie Lee, Cynda Williams

Synopsis: Spike Lee's 1990 directing effort is a jazz film, the story of a fictional trumpeter named Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington). He leads a quintet at the Beneath the Underground club with a flashy saxophonist named Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes). Though Shadow takes a few too many solos Read More

Spike Lee & Company: Do It a Cappella

Mandela in America

Do the Right Thing

Crew: Co-producer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, Richard Edson, John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Bill Nunn, Ossie Davis

Synopsis: Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY. Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a smooth-talkin' deejay (Samuel L. Jackson) spins the platters Read More

School Daze

Crew: Co-producer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Kadeem Hardison, Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Kyme, Joe Seneca, Ossie Davis

Synopsis: Fraternity and sorority members clash with the other students at a historically black university in this politically charged musical, which marked the sophomore feature from director Spike Lee. Dap (Laurence Fishburne) is a politically conscious brother who leads anti-apartheid demonstrations and Read More

She's Gotta Have It

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Spike Lee, Raye Dowell

Synopsis: Spike Lee's breakthrough independent feature, shot in fifteen days on a budget of $175,000, ushered in (along with Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise) the American independent film movement of the 1980s. It was also a groundbreaking film for African-American filmmakers and a welcome change in Read More

Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads

Crew: Cinematographer, Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Monty Ross, Donna Bailey, Stuart Smith, Thomas Hicks, Horace Long

Synopsis: Maybe you sweated over a typewriter or word processor when you worked on your master's thesis in college. But Spike Lee attended the film school of New York University (under the tutelage of Martin Scorsese, by the way), and was thus required to submit a completed film as his thesis. Joe's Read More