Shelton Jackson Lee native of Atlanta, Georgia, was born on March 20, 1957 but as a child, he grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Well aware of his African American individuality, it became well established by the age of 6. Jacquelyn, Lee’s mother, encouraged her children's excitement for African American art and literature. By exposing them to galleries, plays, and museum, Jacquelyn done all that while only being able to provide and raising four children to off of a teacher salary at a private school where she taught. Spike would sometimes go with his father, a well-known musician during that time, to the clubs where he played. At the age of 5 and being old enough to attend school, Shelton got his nickname “Spike Lee” from his mother as an infant.
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Lee received his degree at New York University (NYU). There he enrolled in the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program where he was only a handful of African American students. He produced a forty-five-minute film that was so good, he won the 1983 Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Student Academy Award, Joe's Bed-Stay Barbershop: We Cut Heads, all while working as a movie distribution house cleaning and shipping film. He used those funds to pay his …show more content…
He managed to take a break from filming, however, to marry Linette Lewis. Lewis, a lawyer, linked to Lee for a year prior to their wedding. Crooklyn was released in 1994 to mixed reviews Lee fared far better in 1995 with his next film, Clockers. Clockers tells the story of two brothers who fall under suspicion of murder. One, a drug dealer, had been ordered by his supplier to kill the victim. The other, an upstanding family man, confesses to the crime, saying that he was attacked in the parking lot. The film won outstanding reviews, with some critics citing it as Lee's best work. In 1996 Lee released Get on the Bus, which focuses on a diverse group of African American men riding a bus on their way to the Million Man March (a rally organized in 1995 to celebrate the strength of the African American community) in Washington, D.C. They learn to overcome their differences as they unite for the march. Lee followed that film with 4 Little Girls, a documentary about the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church in 1963, where four African American girls lost their
Lee received his degree at New York University (NYU). There he enrolled in the Tisch School of Arts graduate film program where he was only a handful of African American students. He produced a forty-five-minute film that was so good, he won the 1983 Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Student Academy Award, Joe's Bed-Stay Barbershop: We Cut Heads, all while working as a movie distribution house cleaning and shipping film. He used those funds to pay his …show more content…
He managed to take a break from filming, however, to marry Linette Lewis. Lewis, a lawyer, linked to Lee for a year prior to their wedding. Crooklyn was released in 1994 to mixed reviews Lee fared far better in 1995 with his next film, Clockers. Clockers tells the story of two brothers who fall under suspicion of murder. One, a drug dealer, had been ordered by his supplier to kill the victim. The other, an upstanding family man, confesses to the crime, saying that he was attacked in the parking lot. The film won outstanding reviews, with some critics citing it as Lee's best work. In 1996 Lee released Get on the Bus, which focuses on a diverse group of African American men riding a bus on their way to the Million Man March (a rally organized in 1995 to celebrate the strength of the African American community) in Washington, D.C. They learn to overcome their differences as they unite for the march. Lee followed that film with 4 Little Girls, a documentary about the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church in 1963, where four African American girls lost their