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Spike Lee’s ‘Red Hook Summer’ Set For August 10th Platform Release Via Variance Films

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • April 25, 2012 4:15 PM
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  • 3 Comments
News
Just outta Sundance, Spike Lee promised in February that his latest effort, "Red Hook Summer" would be arriving in August, and true to his word, it will be.
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More: Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer, Variance Films

Listen To The New Beck Song "Looking For A Sign" From 'Jeff Who Lives At Home' Plus More Music Film News

  • By Benjamin Wright
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  • March 21, 2012 11:41 AM
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  • 1 Comment
News
Where would we be without music in our favorite films? While some may rely mostly on score, the needle drop of a pop tune can be quite satisfying when paired with a memorable scene. There could be a few opportunities for this type of moment on the way thanks to some exciting music news that also concerns the film world.
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More: Beck, Jeff Who Lives At Home, Johnny Depp, Red Hook Summer

HBO Passes On Spike Lee's 'Da Brick' Featuring 'Attack The Block' Star John Boyega

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
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  • March 14, 2012 10:22 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Television
While Spike Lee has conquered both the big and small screen with feature films and documentaries, when it comes to television series', he's had far less luck. In 2004 he tried to get "Sucker Free City" up over at Showtime, a series that would've chronicled the disparate groups at play in the gentrification of San Francisco. After a two hour pilot (which wound up being screened at TIFF) it didn't go much further. And it seems another small screen effort has been put on hold before it ever really got started.
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More: HBO , Spike Lee, Da Brick, Red Hook Summer, John Boyega

Spike Lee Says 'Red Hook Summer' Will Arrive In August; Apparently Still Would Love To Make His Trio Of Biopics

  • By Edward Davis
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  • February 10, 2012 5:44 PM
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  • 2 Comments
News
While this writer hasn't seen it yet and therefore perhaps shouldn't speak out of turn, it still seems that one of the most depressing things about the most recent 2012 Sundance Film Festival is that after all the sales and several dozen films purchased by myriad distributors, no one has stepped up to buy Spike Lee's "Red Hook Summer."
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More: Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer

Mookie Once More: Spike Lee Discusses His Own Film Universe & Its Recurring Characters & Locales

  • By Edward Davis
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  • January 27, 2012 3:45 PM
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  • 2 Comments
News
Filmmakers like to revisit their own creative worlds so much that sometimes characters from older films reappear in newer films. This is deeper than simple sequels or prequels, they are a cinematic universe that the same characters inhabit and occasionally cross over within. Sometimes the reappearance of a character occurs as an artfully subtle, self-referential nod on a director's part, while other times it's pretty obvious, not meant to be a hidden treat for fans to notice.
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More: Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer

Sundance: Clarke Peters & Nate Parker And Writer James McBride, Talk Race & Religion In Spike Lee's 'Red Hook Summer'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • January 25, 2012 6:11 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Features
Whatever you thought of his last film, " Miracle At St. Anna" (and we'd argue that it's better than its reputation suggests), most would agree that three-and-a-half years is too long between Spike Lee feature films (though his excellent documentaries have been a good placeholder). One of our most vital filmmakers, behind classics from "Do The Right Thing" to "25th Hour," he delivers work that is always thought-provoking and fiery. And he's not mellowed in his absence; when his latest film, the self-financed "Red Hook Summer," premiered on Sunday night at Sundance, it instantly became one of the controversial, divisive films of the festival, with some calling it a real return to form, and some calling it among his weakest, scrappiest efforts.
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More: Red Hook Summer, Clarke Peters, Nate Parker, James McBride, Interviews, Sundance 2012 Interviews

Sundance: Spike Lee Talks Returning To Brooklyn For 'Red Hook Summer' & Making Films Inside & Outside Hollywood

  • By Todd Gilchrist
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  • January 25, 2012 11:04 AM
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  • 1 Comment
News
More than 25 years after releasing his debut film, “She’s Gotta Have It,” Spike Lee remains one of the most important and influential directors in Hollywood. His portraits of black life in his early works, including “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Jungle Fever” and “Crooklyn,” set an important precedent that countless filmmakers of color have followed, while his forays into more broadly commercial work, such as “Clockers,” “25th Hour,” “Inside Man” and even “Malcolm X,” are significant achievements of both entertainment and bona fide art. In his latest film, “Red Hook Summer,” which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Lee returns to his old stomping grounds of Brooklyn, NY, where he examines life in the Red Hook housing project as seen through the eyes of a teenager who comes from Atlanta, GA to visit his grandfather.
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More: Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer, Sundance 2012 Interviews

Sundance Exclusive: Spike Lee Says 'Brooklyn Loves MJ' Might Be His Next Film; Trio Of Biopics, Including James Brown Film, Might Be Dead

  • By The Playlist
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  • January 23, 2012 9:46 PM
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  • 1 Comment
News
The talk of the slopes, cold huddled buses and inebriated parties so far at Sundance 2012 has arguably been Spike Lee’s latest film, “Red Hook Summer” (read our review here). Evidently a polarizing film (some seem to love it, some hate it; our reviewer dug it), it’s nonetheless lit up the town with passionately divided yay or nay conversations and good films should always provoke at least some discussion.
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More: Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer, Brooklyn Loves MJ, Sundance 2012 Interviews

"This Is Not A Motherf**king Sequel To Do The Right Thing!" & More From The Fiery Q&A For Spike Lee's 'Red Hook Summer'

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • January 23, 2012 12:28 PM
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  • 6 Comments
Festivals
Trust Spike Lee to shake things up a bit. The Sundance Film Festival has been ticking along quietly and unremarkably since the end of last week. Some films screened. Some were good. Some were bad. Yawn. But last night, Spike Lee premiered his latest film, a low-budget, self-funded return to his roots entitled "Red Hook Summer," and it immediately became one of the most divisive pictures of the festival. Our own Todd Gilchrist landed firmly on the positive side with his review this morning, but it looks set to inspire arguments for months to come. 
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More: Spike Lee, Red Hook Summer, Sundance 2012 News

Sundance Review: Spike Lee Reconnects With His Artistic Voice With The Emotionally Devastating 'Red Hook Summer'

  • By Todd Gilchrist
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  • January 23, 2012 6:55 AM
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  • 2 Comments
Reviews
It’s hard to say how long it’s been since Spike Lee was as ambitious, and as focused, as he is on “Red Hook Summer.” Telling a story that evokes “Crooklyn” in its depiction of children coming of age, filtered through two subsequent decades of his professional successes and failures, not to mention an era of black cinema dominated by the iconography of filmmakers like Tyler Perry, Lee’s latest film is a return to the incendiary form that made his name in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, as it examines life in a Brooklyn housing project through the eyes of a preteen who’s forced to spend the summer with his ministerial grandfather. Overlong but consequently understated – perhaps more so than in any film he’s ever made - as its didactic and yet discursive tale builds to a devastating emotional crescendo, “Red Hook Summer” is not just Spike Lee’s most authentically “Spike Lee” film in more than a decade, but a remarkable display of a filmmaker reconnecting with his artistic voice.
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More: Sundance 2012 Reviews, Red Hook Summer

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