Spike Lee has made films pertaining to the African American experience for the past thirty years.  He has grown into prominence as one of the defining voices of modern Black culture.  One of my favorite films by him is Crooklyn.  The movie is a coming of age story about a young black girl, Troy, living in Brooklyn, New York in the 1970s.  The movie is best known for its musical score with songs like “People Make the World Go Round” and “Everyday People.” The semi-autobiographical tale is the creation of another world that resembles Brooklyn, where Spike Lee grew up.  The title of of the movie denotes this new space creation, otherwise the movie could have been simply titled Brooklyn.  Significantly, there are no white Americans prominent in the film, there is hispanic or otherwise ethnic representation in the film with Troy’s neighborhood friend, Gloria, and the owner and operator of the local corner store. Lee is able to recreate remnants of his world in black and brown hues.  He chooses to tell a story about a black family that is positive, entertaining and realistic that does not involve an outside white world.  In this film Lee is able to create an all black space, which is not utopian.  But nonetheless, it is a space for black people, created by black people.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4ivoM-19yA[/youtube]