SPIKE LEE+MICHAEL JACKSON=CITY OF GOD

Spike Lee was in Toronto yesterday as a Guest speaker during Black History Month.  I was lucky enough to hear him talk about the relationship between music and film. Over the course of two hours, we endured a challenging exchange between Lee and the moderator, Clement Virgo. I have enjoyed Virgo's films over the years, but being a great filmmaker does not make you a good moderator. The questions were flat, easy and kind of odd. At one point Clement asks Spike if he was afraid the Public Enemy song "Fight the Power" was playing too many times in Do the Right Thing. If you haven't seen Do the Right thing yet, the song is woven into the tapestry of the film so tightly, that losing the song would have greatly altered the impact of the film.

Lee talks about Malcom X, Inside Man and other movies that relied heavily on the soundtrack to move the story forward.  He talks about his dad and family who have all been an active contributor to his creative process. From sound to editing, his career has been rich with family.

The story that was both the most special and amazing was about when he directed Michael Jacksons' music video "They Don't Really Care about us". They shot in a really dangerous part of Rio De Janeiro. Before Michael was brought down, production had to chat with a local drug dealer to ensure safe passage of Michael and crew during filming.  They came to an agreement.  Lee, Jackson and crew came to Rio and shot a beautiful music video.  During the filming, cast, crew and locals intermingled and shared stories. One of those stories was a very hard and violent one about two boys growing up in the mean streets of Rio Janeiro. One boy was to become a photographer and the other a hardened drug dealer. That drug dealer was the local one mentioned above.  Because of the shoot, the talk and the synchronicities world we live in, The movie City of God came to be.

Thank you Spike Lee for your story.