What can we learn from Spike Lee’s Bamboozled… | Little White Lies

What can we learn from Spike Lee’s Bam­boo­zled today?

07 Dec 2015

Words by Little White Lies

A man in a blue shirt is holding a large black puppet that resembles an African-American boy. The puppet has exaggerated features such as large eyes and a broad smile. They are sitting in front of a bookshelf.
A man in a blue shirt is holding a large black puppet that resembles an African-American boy. The puppet has exaggerated features such as large eyes and a broad smile. They are sitting in front of a bookshelf.
Find out by join­ing the author of ​‘Fac­ing Black­ness’ for a spe­cial screen­ing of the director’s 2000 film.

On Sun­day 13 Decem­ber reg­u­lar LWLies con­trib­u­tor Ash­ley Clark will intro­duce a 35mm screen­ing of Bam­boo­zled Spike Lee’s scathing enter­tain­ment indus­try satire from 2000. Clark is the author of ​‘Fac­ing Black­ness: Media and Min­strel­sy in Spike Lee’s Bam­boo­zled’, a new book explor­ing the film’s impact and lega­cy, which is avail­able to buy from ama​zon​.co​.uk

We asked Clark why he feels the film is still rel­e­vant 15 years on: ​“I think it’s a great and impor­tant film, cer­tain­ly one of Lee’s best. How many oth­er major Amer­i­can films have ques­tioned Hollywood’s racist past, present, and (whis­per it) future as fear­less­ly and aggres­sive­ly? Very few, if any. When I first saw it aged 15, I didn’t know what to make of it, and default­ed to the pre­vail­ing crit­i­cal view that it was an unfo­cused fail­ure. And it sure it is messy. But, after hav­ing spent time unrav­el­ling its mys­ter­ies, I’m con­vinced that its so-called flaws – the ragged­ness of its form and con­tent, Lee’s dar­ing aes­thet­ic choic­es, like film­ing on dig­i­tal video – are what make it so brilliant.”

Get more Lit­tle White Lies

Bam­boo­zled screens at the Ritzy Cin­e­ma in Brix­ton at 4pm and tick­ets are avail­able from pic​ture​hous​es​.com

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