Spike Spillberg Live From the Director's Chair  

Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 6/16/2009 7:03 PM UTC

  Spike Lee Vs. Tyler Perry
  

  In recent years, I have learned as a filmmaker that the artform is subjective. Some people will like what you do and others will not. This is the nature of the business. There has always been a struggle for African Americans since the early days of film and television to be viewed on screen in positive roles. I believe this is the reason for the attack against Tyler Perry by filmmaker Spike Lee. This past weekend Spike Lee was interviewed by Ed Gordon at the Black Enterprise Conference where he gave a no holds barred attack on Tyler Perry's "Meet The Browns" and "House of Payne", calling it coonery and buffonery. He likened the shows to the old Minstrel shows like Amos and Andy or Step N Fetch. Do you feel this is fair? Many feel that Lee is hating on Perry for his mainstream success and that Mr. Lee is only looking for attention for his many so called "controversial films". Others feel that Tyler is "doing his thing" and creating lots of jobs for people.
  
  My take is this. Will blacks do anything for money or fame? I believe that Lee has a legitimate gripe, but do we always have to air our dirty laundry in mainstream media? Tyler Perry has made some great films and a few have been a little suspect with the images being depicted, but we can say the same for Lee.
  
  For example, Do The Right Thing. You have a community of black people where no one owns a single thing. Not a home, not a business, not even there own identity. The central climax of the film was created because a frequent customer called Buggin Out at Sal's Pizza Shop decides that the owner should put pictures of blacks on the wall in his establishment. How can you dictate to a business owner what he needs to put up in his store? If you have your own you can do what you want. This mindstate is a sickness and because he could not get what he wanted he burned down the man's shop. Is this a good image to see? How many people do you know like Buggin Out? How many people do you know like Mr. Brown? As I stated earlier, art is subjective and should be treated as such.
  
  When you look at a film, realize that it is being screened all over the world and the images and behaviors that are shown is how some people believe blacks to really be. If people can put out movies like Soul Plane and Who's Your Caddy, then someone may want to watch it. I personally don't like those kinds of films, but I don't have to attack the filmmaker. Lee was right on how its the people who vote with their dollars on the movies they support. People supported Boyz in the Hood, but not Rosewood. At the end of the day just make a film on issues or topics that make you feel good and that's all you can do. What do you think?
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  • spike lee
  • tyler perry
  • black enterprise
  • spike spillberg
  • skeebofilms
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