onhis on-location edition of "our world with black enterprise." famed director spikeee is makingews, politics and tyler perry. >> i still think that a lot of stuff that's on today is buffoonery, and i know it's making a lot of money and breaking records, b we can do tter >> spike lee, live and candid up next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

from the start of h movie career with "she's got to have it" to his war sry "mirac at st. anna," legendary filmmaker spike lee knows the only way to control images t control the way it's ma. he's always made films his way. i recently sat down with lee at e 14th annual entrepreneurs coerence in detroit for a frank discussion about the struggles he faces making movies. what's wrong with the industry today, the election of president bara obama and why image is so important. let me ask you before you get in-depth with some of the other things. >> when you hea people now talk about iconic, wn you lk back athe breadth of your work, do you see it thaway? >> we still have a lot more work too. no, i haveot stopped.

if y counthe documentary films, we've done, like, 24 and you just have to keep going. >> sheldon jackson-lee -- >> what's so nny? >> youll didn't really think itas spike, did you? 1957, atlanta,nd then you moved to new yk city. >> brooklyn, new york. brooklyn. in the house. how much of what we know is a southern young man or are you through and througbrooklyn? >> like most -- not like most, but like a lot of people, african-americans lived i chicago, detroit, new york, summertime your pents sent you down south. so many smers it was split up.

it was spent half with m father's mher which is in snow, alabama and the other was spent in atlanta, georgia with my mother's mother, and she's the e that put me through morehouse and the nyu graduate film school. e lived to be 100 years old and she's an art teacher. she taughtrt for 50 years and the south a for 58 she never had one white student because of segregatn, and a lot ofhite students missed out on a great teacher. anywayshe saved her sial security checks f 50 years and used that money to send her grandchildren to college. so since i washe oldest i had first dibs. >> when you read about spike lee often in the media, it is said the lead tag line controversial. do you accept that and do you

buy at? >> i think that peoplere very lazy today. journalists, so instead of trying to be create or do thei job, it's easto use a one-wordabel to define one person. how can you use one word to define anybody and the subject matters th we've done in my films, ion't thinkhey're controversl. i don't think racism is it's thought provoking, you know? with thatn "do the right alt thing," "jungle fer" and "malcolm x," i don't think it was ntroversial. we looked at what i feel are superficial differences that keep us being a more unified people supeicia differences based upon ski complexion,air

texture, class,hat's not controversial. >> to a great degree, spike, you have gone around hlywood to get movies made. do youecent that with yo track record that there are a number of movies? i know that you continue to look different ilk, different color and different hue and you don't have to sell it in e same way. well, i still think that with material that is deeply rooted in african-american history, it is sti hardeto get that stuff made. we have malcolm x made and the producer, marvin worth who braut bought the rights from the late, great shabbaz and he got imade 20ears before he and i did it. it took 20 years to gethat made. >> you aa, quote, celebrity director, doou like the fact

along with being airector. id >> i don't consider myself a celebrity. >>, but y are one. >> as i said before i don't consider myself a celebrity. i consider myself an aist, a fi difference.nd at's a big i'm not trying get on tmz. but the reason why people migh thin i'm a celebrity is because most dictors, you don't know who they are. most people don't even kw what even spielberg looks like, but you knowhat woody allen looks like because he's appearedn s films like alfred hitchcock or he' made a cameo with his films, plus the character i play, mars bla in "she's gotta have it." that whole thing with nike was a

mistake. i played this character mars black who wore nikes and even when he made love to nola, he didn't take off his jordans, he nikes, advertising agey ds of kennedy, they saw the film and went to michael jordaand said we should do this. and, of course, mike didn't know who i was. head not seen the film yet and he could easily have squashed that and just gone with some, whoever the hottest white director was out at the time, but he gave me a shot and so at that point, you know, we did, like, eit years. that really blew - nike ble up people don't give philip knight credit for that because with the exceptn of aunt jemima and uncle ben's -- uncle ben's rice, white america has never really

put a black person as a face of their compan and phip knit did that with nike. itnswers one of the questions that i had, a that is whether or not that was a calculated decision to brand rvin -- >> no, it was not. the only reaso i was in "she's gotta have it" because we couldn'tffordo pay anybody else. i don't even like acng. a l of this is on us, you know. we -- you vote with your cketbook, your wallet. you vote with your time,itting in front of the idiot box. ♪ ♪ hold on a second... come oup here, where your broths sit. wow!

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ there is a sense of, in our community, i remembered people interviewed the president and said that wa great and they looked at the numbers. if i interviewed oprah or whitney the numbers were much, mu big are. there were nbers that we weren't diversifiedn our communy yet. there are ctain images whether they be inlays or movies or musi that we flock t whether

we like to ait it or not. i'm wondering is that just the black middle class saying oh, no, that's not what we want, but a lot of us areanting it? well, i mean, this is a complex subject because each arti should be allowed to pursue their artisc endeor, but i still think that a l of stuf that's on today is coonery buffoonery and i know it's making a lot of money and it's breaking records, but we could do better. that's jt my opinion. i'm a huge basketball fan and when i watch the games on tn it, see these two ads for these two shows and i'm scratching my head. u know, this is -- we have a blackpresident. you know, we're goi back to

mad time marli andleep and eat? >> yet, if those films, i mean, wee talking about tyler perry at this point. >> no, no i mean, look. i'm not sayg we're talking -- >> let's not give them fodder for tabloid. i'm not saying we're talking about tyle perry, but those are e shows we' talking about, if we're talking about that and weook at the numbe that come and see his movies and view the shows on tbs, my question i is that, in fact, maybe what black america wants to see? >> a lar part. >> i hear aot of nos and yet there are a lot of peoe wahing it. >> here's the thing, thou, because we've had this diussion back and forth because when john singleton. wh people came out to see "boys in the hood" and h d

"rosewood" and nobody showed up. so a lot of this is on us. a lo of this isn us, you know. we -- you vote with your pocketbook, yo wallet. you vote with your time, sitting in front of e idiot box and e man has a huge audience and tyler is very smt. hetarted t, you know, with these plays and church busse would pull up packed ande's parlayed it intoa, y know -- boht his own jet. if you can buy a jet, you've got moy. imagery i troubling.r me, just >> is there a disappointment from you as a directornd an

african-american that "miracle at st. anna" won't get the same audience as others yoll make. >> dvd is a director's bes friend. so a lot of people hav com up to me and said they liked it a lot and for wtever reason they didn't get to see it in the theater, but thedefinitely got the bootleg or watched it on television, pay-per-view, and en if nobody showed , i wanted to make that film bau hollywood historically has omitted the contribution of 1.1 african-american men and wom who fought and died for ts country in world war ii. and i just got tired of seeing these films, again and again and

again which does not give any love to us. the fst person that died for this countryas a blackman, christmas addux. we've been -- we're more patriotic than anybody. >> but the media views youhat way. >> i ner, ever say this is spike lee saking on behalf of 45 million negroes. >> right. ♪ ♪ ♪ honda accord and toyota camry stand behi their powertrain for up to 60,000 mis. chevy malibu stands bend theirs for uto 100,000 miles which makes it pretty clear whose standing oufront. a consumers digest "best buy" two years running. chevy malibu. compare it to yone and may the best car win. during the spring even qualified lessees, now get a 27-monthlow mileage leason this mali ls for around $199 a month.

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body rested. stress gone. mind sharp. because unisom gave you deep restful sleep all night. morning early birds. unisom. good night. good morning. let me tak you to politics. you've been veryoutspoken over your years and to a great degree become a de facto, if nothing else spokesman for black america. well, again, spike, you may not accept it -- >> okay, baby. >> let me get the queionut. >> when i say something -- but >> i never, ever sayhis is y. spike lee speaking on behalf of 45 million negroes. >> right.

>> but you and i both know -- >> it is just my opinion. >> you and i both know that because ofhere we are ware allowed to give ice ande are seen rhtly or wrony, as spokespersons for those 4 million negroes. that doesn't mean you have to acce that. >> no, and i'm saying was, my qution was do you accept it. do y lik it? question mark. >> again. i've never, ever thought i was a okesperson for us as a people. so while i've said stuff that' been my viewpointnd i'm only speaking for myself. >> you a i were together in convention and of cour, at th nation's capital ding the inauguration what was it fo y to be on the front linesf that, to see what i think mostf us in this room believed we would never see in our lifetime. >> it was really witnessing

history. i me. it was being alive when april 15, 1947 when jackie robbiinson broke the color barrier and joe lewisnocked out snellin. when jackie robinson played for the dodgers every afcan-american in this coury was praying for him. en youin in black communities, not just in detroit, chicago, all over the world will come out of the house afte listening to joe knock out those guys on the radio and ce out and celebrate. when magic's lakers beat the celtics. it was dferent last ar. last year was diffent because i've never seen so many black people root for the celtics last year. i'm talking about the lakers of

kareem and magic, and versus mchail and down t line, blk folks wanted the lakers to kill themeses. >> colleively -- you talk out how that's a shared community and what do you think about what america h to take from this election. >> what if we miss it? >> there's this phrase coming up now called post-racial something and it's the craziest thing i've ever heard of that because barack obama, barack hussein -- we can say the middleame now hussei it's all right. >> now that he's in, we cansey say it. >> hussein has become the 44th presidt of americaike

everything that's been delivered like there's no more racism and no morerejudice and we're just -- u know, we've been delivered. th's not the case at all. we have to sta vigilant. the's still more rican-americ men incarcerated than enrolled in colleges and universities. and the life expectancy. we live i a time when young black men say they' oy with the fact that they might not live past 18 years old. any time our young black men someing's wrong where they don't expt to live pt 18, and they'r okay with it. and we were talking about it before where detroit, for many ars had the positn of

homicide and you've been subplanted with new orleans and i think it was chicago and we are jus killing each other and it's genocide. it's genocide. a lot of it is fueled by many, many different factors and we have to turn itround if we're going to survive as a people. >>e shouldnote, and i s is having en in this business a long timend seeing directors and actors and artists come and go. to stay inhis business and to stay o top of this business, paicully to be african-american takes a whole lot. so we appreciat every time you put somethin out, man. all of the way. be behind you we appreciate mr. spike lee. >> tha you vermuch. ♪ welcome tour mcdonald's. yours? really? it'seen our dream since we were kids. uh, that long, huh? why not? mcdonald's really supports entrepreneurs. ey spend over $5 billion dollars... with businesses in communities like ours.

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> that's it for this edition of "our world" with black enterprise. for more infortion go to ourworld.black enterprise.com. i'm ed gordon. thanks for making our world, yo world. a sweeping chaise sectional at the unheard of price, now just $399. with luxurious styling and so afforble, $399. from jennifer. i get to sleep faster, stay ap anwake refresh. melt to sleep fa.