Spike is 60: Bamboozled and Panel Discussion at HOME
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
The cinema of Spike Lee is at once ferocious, hilarious, politically attuned and stylistically astonishing. As one of the few mainstream filmmakers that has been afforded the opportunity to build a large body of work (40 films over 35 years) engaging with America from a black perspective, Lee has demonstrated his supreme mastery of his craft time and time again. To mark the year of the director’s sixtieth birthday, events company We Are Parable are presenting a season of the director’s best work. Entitled ‘Spike is 60’, the season spans 13 films and 11 events across London and Manchester.
The first event in the season to hit Manchester is a screening of Lee’s 2001 film Bamboozled. This blazing satire sees Damon Wayan’s television executive create a modern day minstrel show, with the purpose of getting himself fired from his job. When the programme – which features black actors in blackface – becomes an unexpected success, Wayan’s character experiences a mental collapse. It’s a smart, sharp look at how issues of media representation – which industry members might like to believe have been consigned to the past – linger on in the world of entertainment.
After the screening there will be a chance to dig deeper into the film with a panel discussion hosted by The British Blacklist.
The project has been supported by Film London, and Film Hub North West Central, a member of the BFI Film Audience Network which uses National Lottery funding to bring world class cinema to audiences across the UK.
