This course is a seminar on the films by director Spike Lee. It facilitates in-depth analysis and close readings of a range of motion pictures directed by an individual working with other filmmaking professionals. Informed by auteur studies, the course explores the production, reception, aesthetics, politics and evolution of Sheldon Jackson Lee’s feature and documentary work. These films are situated in their political, cultural and industrial contexts. These contexts are central to our understanding of these films as palimpsests or texts upon which multiple meanings are layered. Rigorous discussions of diverse and complex issues (i.e., regarding race, gender, class, sexuality and nationality) will reveal differences of opinion, experience, and background. The interplay between identity and spectatorship will also be examined. Screenings, readings and presentations required.