Cinema Science

I was going to post something about the Spike Lee lecture and Q & A I attended this Saturday but the Star-Telegram beat me to it and did a better job than I could have. A few of their anecdotes from the event.

The use of the n-word as a term of endearment:

"Good question." Lee said he had done it himself. "But it still makes me uneasy when people who are not African-American use that term."

Waiting for a studio to call and offer a project after he graduated from film school with a student Academy Award:

"I felt I had arrived. But a funny thing happens when you wait by the phone. Ma Bell turns off the phone. That was the best thing that happened to me. Made me get off my rusty butt."

Doing a job you don't love:

"You don't want to be there; they don't want you there either."

His stance on baggy pants:

"That's the best question tonight. This baggy pants is gang culture. You're not allowed to wear a belt in the joint. That's where it came from. You have to know the origin of stuff you adopt. But this gets us back to the culture [when he was young]. We looked up to the guys who were great athletes. We also looked up to the guys who were smart. That is not the case today. You are ridiculed. You are called a white boy, a sellout. An Oreo. Got them gold, ignorant caps on, you're down, you're cool, you're wit' it."

On crack:

"Crack changed everything. Crack erased adults and left children to raise children. Nowadays, these young people equate being intelligent with being white. Our ancestors did not do that. We're really betraying our ancestors by not understanding the value of education. That's genocide."