This year’s Tribeca Film Festival marks the first time legendary filmmaker Spike Lee has an entry. Doubling up with the documentaries Passing Strange and Kobe Doin’ Work, the former is a look into the coming-of-age Broadway play of the same name, while the latter showcases a day on the job against the San Antonio Spurs for one of the NBA’s best.
GIANT caught up with Lee on Monday, April 27 at the Babelgum Online Film Festival - the first festival to enable both web and mobile viewing of its entries from all across the globe. As Honorary Chairman of the festival jury, Lee handed out prizes to the nine winners, passing along the directorial torch in the process.
GIANT: How did you become involved with Babelgum?
Spike Lee: They asked me. Anything that’s involved with a platform for young filmmakers, I’m with. This is the third year. First year was at Cannes [Film Festival]. Last year was at the Toronto Film Festival. Now we’re here at the Tribeca Film Festival.
GIANT: Were there any platforms when you yourself were just starting out?
Spike Lee: Psshhhhh. I graduated film school in 1982—no. You know, all this technology wasn’t here.
GIANT: With Kobe Doin’ Work, what is it about the documentary about soccer legend Zidane that inspired you to pursue a similar project about Kobe?
Spike Lee: They had all these cameras on Zidane, and I said, “This would work for basketball — better.” There’s more action in basketball. But to be honest, if it wasn’t for that film, I would’ve never thought of doing this for Kobe.
GIANT: Why did you choose Kobe as your subject?
Spike Lee: He won the MVP last year. He went to the Finals. He’s one of the best two players in the league.
GIANT: Would the other be LeBron? Why not him?
Spike Lee: Yeah, but last year LeBron didn’t win MVP. He’ll probably win it this year.
GIANT: Your love of baseball is also well documented in your films. Could a baseball project materialize?
Spike Lee: Like this? That’d be hard. What position can I do—you stand around a lot in baseball. I wanna say a pitcher or a catcher. The next sport would be football, but I could never do it because of the [NFL] and NFL Films. The player would be the quarterback, but they would never let me mic a quarterback and get all his signals because in the NFL, they let NFL Films run everything and they don’t let you come in and give you the access unless you’re with NFL Films. It’s a drag.
GIANT: Keeping with the sports theme, what’s your impression the Air Jordan line has taken?
Spike Lee: Love the Spizikes. Mike’s doing a great job. Brand Jordan is about to become a billion-dollar company so I tip my hat to Michael Jordan.
GIANT: What about the design aspect of the more recent shoes?
Spike Lee: I just think sometimes — it’s not just Brand Jordan, but Nike in general — I wish they cut down. There are just too many shoes. Pull back a little bit — don’t release so many.
GIANT: Besides the Spizikes, do you have any more collaborations with Jordan in the works?
Spike Lee: Not right now. Better put in a good word.
GIANT: It’s been twenty years since the release of Do The Right Thing. What do you perceive the lasting influence of the film to be?
Spike Lee: Still hangin’ around, still has impact. It’s a combination of the subject matter, the filmmaking, the acting, the music — my father did the score — Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power,” issues we addressed in the film — just the whole thing.
GIANT: With the music being such an integral part, what do you make of the direction hip-hop has taken since?
Spike Lee: There’s only one hip-hop record in the film, even though it was heard twenty times. Hip-hop really wasn’t a dominant thing in that film — they were all types of music. Ruben Blades had a salsa song, Steel Pulse had a reggae song, we had Take 6 —you know, a whole bunch of music in that.
GIANT: But with hip-hop becoming the dominant musical genre in the years since, what’s your opinion of it in its current state?
Spike Lee: Well some of it I like, some of it I don’t like. I’m not really a fan of the gangster stuff — it does a disservice to our young people.
- Devin Chanda
