Spike Lee has never been a fan of Hollywood.The filmmaker—and committed New York Knick’s fan—has been very open in expressing his disdain over lack of mainstream financial support for Black films, and with his newest project, Red Hook Summer, hitting select theaters today, the Brooklyn native broke down his new disposition. “I’m moved passed trying to explain what people do,” Lee told TheGrio.
“You would have to ask them why they do the things they do. If you asked, they probably would’ve said they have their reasons, but I did know that it would’ve been a waste of time to try and get the studios to finance this film[Red Hook Summer].”
The film follows a teen boy, Flik Royale, who is sent from Atlanta to Red Hook Brooklyn to stay with his ultra-religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse, whom he meets for the first time. Over the summer Royale puts together the pieces as to why he never met Rouse, while building a relationship with a girl his age named, Chazz Morningstar. After the reveal of a shocking secret, Flik—and the entire community—are forced to look at Bishop Rouse in a different light. “When we began to talk about this film, we always knew this had to be done outside the Hollywood studio system,” said Lee. “So it was shot like that and it’s being distributed like that. I’m not gonna’ put myself in a position where if Hollywood doesn’t want to make a film then that means it can’t get made.”
Reed Hook Summer is a collaboration between Lee’s 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks and Variance Films, and will expand to 30 markets through the month of August.
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Photo: The Grio
