"Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee" (1991)

The Black History month is gone and I don’t want to wait for another one, so here´s a post about a guy you know very well. This post might have been called “The Brooklyn thang” or “40 Acres and a Mule Issue“, anyway this moment is dedicated to one and only Spike Lee.




This book is about five Lee´s movies and the words of five contributors, plus the pictures of his brother, David Lee tell Us the story of the beginning of Spike lee´s career. A foreword was written by the famous director and the founder of Black cinema, Melvin Van Peebles. The story of each movie is told by one contributor (see below) and it states an original theory about work of that Brooklyn artist.

We might miss the greatest piece of his work: Malcolm X, because the book was published in 1991, so for this time we have "Jungle Fever" as the last one. Nevertheless the background of five movies will satisfy all y´all, even the hardcore Spike Lee´s fans (I´m one of them). In this case pictures speak louder than words, but below you can still find an extract of Spike Lee´s foreword, so the rest is up to you.

All right, let´s go! We live in Brooklyn baby! And that´s the truth, Ruth!

PS: Do Not forget to always do the right thing!
By Any Means Necessary!


The Movie list + Contributors:

“She's Gotta Have It” (1986) by Terry McMillan

“School Daze” (1988) by Toni Cade Bambara

“Do the Right Thing” (1989) by Nelson Goerge

“Mo' Better Blues” (1990) by Charles Johnson

“Jungle Fever” (1991) by Henry Louis Gates Jr.



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Title: Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee
Authors: Composite authors (above) David Lee (Photographer)
Foreword: Melvin Van Peebles
Introduction: Spike Lee and David Lee
Publisher: First Glance Books;
Year: 1991
Number of pages: 224
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an extract of the book: Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee

“The Jackson Five. The Five Satins. The Five Stairsteps. Five Fingers of Death. Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Bench, and Ed Charles – they wore the number five. My mother, Jacquelyn Shelton Lee, had five children. My brother´s name is Cinque. The number five is a nice number. She's Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and the new joint Jungle Fever – that´s 5 for 5. These five films have been produced over the last six years; with this productivity I left it would be good idea to take a quick pause for the cause and look back as we move ahead for the next five.
We´ve done four books for each film, with basically the same format. For numero cinco I wanted something different. I wanted this book to be a pictorial study of all my films. Cinema is a visual medium, and the books to date have been limited in their use of photo. My brother David Charles Lee, a gifted photographer (What else did you expect – he´s a Lee), has been on the sets for each of my movies, and through his images, I hope the viewer sees the progression of the films and my craft.
I can´t remember when my brother started to take a pictures. He says he always did; I don´t remember, or maybe I wasn´t paying attention. When he went to Yale and studied photography, I realized he was serious about camera, and this was fine by me. His first assignment was the opening-credit sequence and winter montage in “She´s gotta have it”. It´s difficult for me to describe what it is about his work that I love. Yet I know I love it and the subjects he chooses. It doesn´t take an art degree to see the growth in his photography, and this book showcases his talent.”

Spike Lee (1991)

"Five for Five: The Films of Spike Lee"
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