Spike Lee made one of his most daring films with this 2000 comedy-drama, a scathing look at racial stereotypes in popular culture.
Damon Wayans stars as Pierre Delacroix, an uptight, Ivy League-educated TV writer who proposes a modern-day minstrel show as a protest against television portrayals of African Americans, only to see his series become an unexpected and unironic ratings blockbuster. The supporting cast includes Jada Pinkett Smith as Wayans’s assistant and Tommy Davidson and Tony-winning choreographer Savion Glover as the stars of the minstrel show “Mantan.” Lee worked with cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), shooting in an unusual mixture of digital (for the real world scenes) and film (for the “Mantan” sequences).
2000, 135 minutes, color, 35mm | Written and directed by Spike Lee; with Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Paul Mooney.