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Celebrity Spike Lee
A Report Taken from: www.post-trib.com
Award-winning director Spike Lee and a film crew spent Wednesday at the childhood home of Michael Jackson filming a documentary about the King of Pop.
“This … is where it all happened! Right here — 2300 Jackson Street … the greatest entertainer in the world,” Lee said during a brief break between filming.
Director Spike Lee (left) instructs T-shirt vendors in front of the Jackson family home Wednesday during the filming of a documentary in Gary. (Leslie Adkins/Post-Tribune)
Lee wore his traditional New York Yankees baseball attire to fight off the early morning chill. Lee, responsible for more than 20 years of acclaimed movies such as “Do The Right Thing,” “School Daze” and “Malcolm X,” directed Jackson several years ago in a music video.
It was called “They Don’t Really Care About Us,” a title from one of Jackson singles from the “HIStory” CD.
Lee said the footage at the house will be part of a short film on Jackson’s life that will likely be released in mid-October. Jackson died June 25 at age 50.
When asked if his short film is coinciding with the release of “This is It,” a movie on Jackson’s final days that includes footage of the singer’s rehearsals for a London tour, Lee said “it could be.”
“This is It” will be released Oct. 28 and play for just two weeks. Tickets went on sale Monday and many 500-seat venues have sold out. Some Northwest Indiana theaters are holding late-night premieres Oct. 27.
Wednesday’s filming here was kept secret for days.
Spike Lee watches as a crowd gathers on the street as another shot is set up. (Leslie Adkins/Post-Tribune)
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A report taken from:
nydailynews.com by Rachel Monahan and Samuel Goldsmith
The rain didn’t stop Michael Jackson fans from celebrating his birthday inProspect Park Saturday, where thousands of one-gloved moonwalkers remembered the King of Pop.
Famed director Spike Lee organized the massive dance party for what would have been the star’s 51st birthday.
“Fifty-one years ago, he was born into the world,” said Lee, who directed the “They Don’t Care About Us” music video for Jackson in 1996.
“I’m like everybody else – somebody who loved his talent,” he said. “We’re here to celebrate Michael Jackson.”
Indeed, the birthday party had a celebratory tone – a welcome change from weeks of grieving Jackson’s death.
Tracy Morgan & Spike Lee
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A Time Magazine Interview
In 1996, Spike Lee — director of films from Do the Right Thing to Malcolm X to the recent documentary Kobe Doin’ Work — traveled to Brazil with Michael Jackson to produce the music video for his controversial song “They Don’t Care About Us.” He talked to TIME about his experiences, Michael Jackson’s legacy and having the Gloved One as a houseguest.
Spike Lee
What’s your favorite Michael Jackson song?
I was born in 1957; he was born in 1958. And so I grew up, literally, with Michael Jackson. We both reached adolescence at the same time. And I had a big Afro like he did, and I hoped that the girls would like me the way they liked Michael — but that wasn’t happening. And you know, I loved him as a solo artist, but I have a special place in my heart for the stuff he did with the Jackson 5: “I’ll Be There.”
Do you remember the first time you heard it?
No. My memory’s shot. I’m in Cannes, France, for a conference; I left dinner last night, got home, I turned on CNN and there it was — him being rushed to the hospital. I didn’t go to bed the whole night. I just kept watching CNN. So it’s a big, big, big, big loss for the world. And I’d like to make this comment: I’ve seen too many people talking about Michael like they knew exactly what he did. Let’s celebrate his genius, his musicality, his gift, his talent, and leave the other stuff at least till he gets buried. Let’s celebrate his life now. That’s the way I feel.
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Less than a day after Michael Jackson’s death, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, announced that the city would erect a statue of the singer in Dona Marta, a favela that was once notorious for drug dealing and is now a model for social development. The change was spurred partly by Jackson’s 1996 visit to film the video for “They Don’t Care About Us.”
Jackson shot two videos for “They Don’t Care About Us,” the fourth single from “HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I”: one in a prison and another in Dona Marta and Salvador da Bahia, a colonial Brazilian city known for its Afro-Brazilian culture and music.
When Jackson came to Brazil to shoot the video, directed by Spike Lee, Rio’s local government became concerned that the singer would show the world an unflattering picture of poverty. At the time, Brazilians, like people the world over, saw Jackson as an idol. He’d been to the country twice before, once with the Jackson 5 in the ’70s and again in 1993, when he played two concerts in São Paulo to 100,000 people each night.
At the time, the concert promoter Dodi Sirena recalls a “sensitive” artist who asked for an amusement park to be reserved for his use, then invited children from the poorest public schools. “He displayed great concern for everything in the country, with poverty, with street children,” Sirena says.
In that context, Jackson’s choice of locale for his video made sense. “The video is about the people no one cares about,” says Claudia Silva, press liaison for Rio’s office of tourism.
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Producing the first video proved to be a difficult task for Jackson.
Angry Officials
State authorities unsuccessfully tried to ban the singer filming in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador (Officials feared images of poverty might affect tourism and accused Jackson of exploiting the poor.
Ronaldo Cezar Coelho, the state secretary for Industry, Commerce and Tourism demanded editing rights over the finished product, stating, “I don’t see why we should have to facilitate films that will contribute nothing to all our efforts to rehabilitate Rio’s image”.
Some were concerned that scenes of poverty and human rights abuses would affect their chances of hosting the Olympics in 2004. Others supported Jackson’s wish to highlight the problems of the region, arguing that the government were embarrassed by their own failings. A judge banned all filming but this ruling was overturned by an injunction.
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