Spike Lee’s Documentaries: The Creative Art of Making Nonfiction

Spike Lee’s appropriation of the documentary mode has given rise to few critiques when compared with the endless debates and controversies triggered by his feature films. This article endeavors to fill in this critical lacuna, analyzing the creative process behind Lee’s deployment of the documentary genre. The director leaves an idiosyncratic imprint on the genre, which exhibits his trademark shots like an authorial voice. Drawing on an array of television archival footage, his documentaries posit a metatextual critique of media discourse highlighting the ideological underpinning behind racial representations. Even though they tackle serious issues, the documentaries are entertaining pieces that dramatize the treatment of actuality, for Lee self-reflexively uses some of the film techniques that define his cinematic style. This study engages with Lee’s art of making documentaries through use of the theoretical tools developed by Bill Nichols.