On March 13, 2011, acclaimed filmmaker/screenwriter/auteur Spike Lee decided to join Twitter. After asking his son, Jackson Lewis Lee, several questions about the social network and then receiving an “Internet safety talk” (right) — Spike sent out the following test/teaser tweets:
This is Speeezy. Microphone Check 1-2.1-2. The Bona-fide Spike Lee.
This is Speezzy. I will officially start to Tweet on my Born Day. Sunday March 20th. Ya-Dig? Sho-Nuff.
As promised, Spike began to tweet on his “Born Day,” today, March 20. And he hit the ground running, his tweets ranging in themes from basketball to Hollywood, or exactly the subject matter one would expect from the director. He considers, for example,
- the Knicks (and “the Hated Celtics”)
- the importance of education and reading books (he suggests you to pick up Malcolm X, if you never have)
- our “backwards culture,” i.e., getting love for being ignorant (he’s talking to you, reality TV) and receiving hate for being intelligent
- the film industry, e.g., Denzel was robbed of the Oscar for his performance as Malcolm X
I don’t follow many film directors on Twitter. For a time, I followed Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) and Jon Favreau (@jon_favreau), but the former’s tweets always rubbed me as misogynistic and crude (75% of them are about his masturbation practices), and the latter’s, while interesting on occasion, consistently discussed Iron Man 2, a film I had/have no interest in. As a result, I stopped following both.
So far, I’m digging Spike’s tweets and hope he continues to maintain his persona: pushing education, reading, and smarts as well as commenting on the industry as both an outsider and a member. You may read all of his tweets thus far below, and you may follow him on Twitter at @spikelee.
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Professor of film and Shakespeare. Advocate of social media. Lover of popular culture,