the Director, the Screenwriter, acted in it,

and I was the 1st--we didn't have a 1st AD.

Why?

We didn't have the money.

When you're an independent filmmaker and making films

outside of Hollywood, that's hard.

You have to pray on bended knee at that church of cinema.

But you have these tools that could help you tell a story.

Want to show someone who is a little weak?

You shoot them from above.

Want to show someone who is powerful?

You shoot them from below.

Well, there's a dynamic that you get

with the movement of camera.

Film is about movement.

For the writers--

You know what the f*** that means?

Yeah, it means pay me my mother******’ money.

Here's the thing-- why this works.

When you think about it, they're both right.

That really makes s*** dramatic when both people have beliefs,

and then, you have them come head to head.

I owe you fifty bucks.

You keep it.

You keep it.

No, you keep it.

You keep it.

There's been a history of American cinema, which

has denigrated, defamed, belittled, dehumanized.

It's documented.

The Klan used Birth of a Nation to lynch black folks.

As a filmmaker, you know, it's not something to play with.

It's going to take many decades to retell these stories.

And I knew that one way that I could do something about this

was to make films for a diverse audience

to show black people in all our glory, faults, warts,

and what not.

Just grab the camera and go.

Fight to get your vision on the screen.

In short of killing somebody, robbing, I mean,

you're gonna do what you have to do to get this thing made.

Majority of the people on this earth go to the grave

having worked a job they’ve hated their whole life.

So, if you're able to make a living doing what you love,

you've won.

I'm Spike Lee, and this is my MasterClass.

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