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  • She's Gotta Have It--I was the Caterer, the Producer,

  • the Director, the Screenwriter, acted in it,

  • and I was the 1st--we didn't have a 1st AD.

  • Why?

  • We didn't have the money.

  • When you're an independent filmmaker and making films

  • outside of Hollywood, that's hard.

  • You have to pray on bended knee at that church of cinema.

  • But you have these tools that could help you tell a story.

  • Want to show someone who is a little weak?

  • You shoot them from above.

  • Want to show someone who is powerful?

  • You shoot them from below.

  • Well, there's a dynamic that you get

  • with the movement of camera.

  • Film is about movement.

  • For the writers--

  • You know what the f*** that means?

  • Yeah, it means pay me my mother******’ money.

  • Here's the thing-- why this works.

  • When you think about it, they're both right.

  • That really makes s*** dramatic when both people have beliefs,

  • and then, you have them come head to head.

  • I owe you fifty bucks.

  • You keep it.

  • You keep it.

  • No, you keep it.

  • You keep it.

  • There's been a history of American cinema, which

  • has denigrated, defamed, belittled, dehumanized.

  • It's documented.

  • The Klan used Birth of a Nation to lynch black folks.

  • As a filmmaker, you know, it's not something to play with.

  • It's going to take many decades to retell these stories.

  • And I knew that one way that I could do something about this

  • was to make films for a diverse audience

  • to show black people in all our glory, faults, warts,

  • and what not.

  • Just grab the camera and go.

  • Fight to get your vision on the screen.

  • In short of killing somebody, robbing, I mean,

  • you're gonna do what you have to do to get this thing made.

  • Majority of the people on this earth go to the grave

  • having worked a job theyve hated their whole life.

  • So, if you're able to make a living doing what you love,

  • you've won.

  • I'm Spike Lee, and this is my MasterClass.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

She's Gotta Have It--I was the Caterer, the Producer,

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