Spike Lee was disappointed that “Selma” didn’t earn director Ava DuVernay an Oscar nomination — but the filmmaker wasn’t surprised by potential racism, sexism and even Old Boys Club-ism in the Academy and other awards groups.
“You can choose any ‘ism’ you want,” Lee tells the Daily News. “Until you get that diversity in voting members, these things are gonna happen. It’s pure mathematics. … It’s the nature of the beast,” he adds.
The good news, says the sometimes fiery Lee, is that change is gonna come.
“I commend Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs,” he says, name-checking the first African-American woman to lead the 87-year-old organization, which will dole out those shiny statues Feb. 22. “(She) is determined to diversify the voting blocs.”
Lee is a member of the Academy, the fruit of a career that began almost 30 years ago with the breakout indie hit “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986) and has included critically hailed hits “Do the Right Thing” (1989), “Malcolm X” (1992), “25th Hour” (2002) and “Inside Man” (2006), plus documentaries and smaller films.
His latest is “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus,” opening Friday and currently available via video on demand. Filmed on the Upper West Side and on Martha’s Vineyard, “Blood” is a horror drama about a reluctant vampire, Hess Greene (Stephen Tyrone Williams), who turns a friend’s sexy wife (Zaraah Abrahams) undead. When they’re visited by Hess’ ex-girlfriend (Felicia Pearson), some crucial dynamics change.
The movie, a remake of the 1973 cult favorite “Ganja & Hess,” was funded by Lee on Kickstarter. Even the songs that surround the score by Bruce Hornsby were crowdsourced.
Lee, 57, insists it’s not a matter of an established director rediscovering grassroots filmmaking. “People might get that interpretation, but it’s not the case,” he says. “I’m a professor at NYU, and my students introduced me to crowdsourcing and how they finance their films on Kickstarter. [They] said, ‘You should try this!’ “
In 30 days, Lee raised more than $1.2 million — and he had a killer offer for top Kickstarter investors.
“My $10,000 item was to sit with me courtside at a Knicks game, with a pregame dinner,” he says with a smile. A friend, fellow director Steven Soderbergh (“Ocean’s Eleven”), was the first to donate that much.
Lee, born in Atlanta, grew up in Brooklyn before moving to the Upper East Side, and his connection to the city strong — even when it’s hurting. In the wake of a grand jury’s decision in December not to indict police officers in the death of Eric Garner of Staten Island, Lee marched in the streets with protesters.
“The beautiful thing about the protests was that they were so diverse,” he says. “It made my heart jump with joy when I saw young white kids with signs, ‘Black Lives Matter.’ It unified New York together in trying to bring about change when they see an injustice.
“For me, that was one of New York’s best moments in the last few years.”
Garner’s death eerily echoed the murder of Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) in Lee’s classic “Do the Right Thing.”
“When I wrote that film, Radio Raheem was based on what happened to Michael Stewart,” a black graffiti artist who died in police custody in 1983. “Raheem was fictional, but Garner was real, and I was shocked.
“I don’t hate cops — they do a great job. But when they don’t, they have to be held accountable. … It’s not good when there’s friction between cops and the community.
“Something needs to happen because it’s not working the way it is. … People won’t forget.”
With jneumaier@nydailynews.com
