Spike Lee's Documentaries: The Creative Art of Making Nonfiction

Spike Lee's appropriation of the documentary mode has given rise to few critiques when compared with the endless debates and controversies triggered by his feature films. This article endeavors to fill in this critical lacuna, analyzing the creative process behind Lee's deployment of the d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Black camera : the newsletter of the Black Film Center/Archives 2016-10, Vol.8 (1), p.9-26
Main Author: Letort, Delphine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African Americans
Archives
Audiences
Authorial voice
Cameras
Civil rights
Creative process
Creativity
Cultural heritage and museology
Documentary films
Documentary television programs
Editing
Genre
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hurricanes
Ideology
Levees
Library and information sciences
Memory
Motion picture directors & producers
Narratives
Newton, Huey P (1942-1989)
Nonfiction
Professional football
Stereotypes
United States history
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Description
Summary:Spike Lee's appropriation of the documentary mode has given rise to few critiques when compared with the endless debates and controversies triggered by his feature films. This article endeavors to fill in this critical lacuna, analyzing the creative process behind Lee's deployment of the documentary genre. The director leaves an idiosyncratic imprint on the genre, which exhibits his trademark shots like an authorial voice. Drawing on an array of television archival footage, his documentaries posit a metatextual critique of media discourse highlighting the ideological underpinning behind racial representations. Even though they tackle serious issues, the documentaries are entertaining pieces that dramatize the treatment of actuality, for Lee self-reflexively uses some of the film techniques that define his cinematic style. This study engages with Lee's art of making documentaries through use of the theoretical tools developed by Bill Nichols.
ISSN:1536-3155
1947-4237
DOI:10.2979/blackcamera.8.1.0009