Academy Award Winning Filmmaker
The 2025 CNS Michael L.J. Apuzzo Lecturer on Creativity and Innovation: Spike Lee will speak on Sunday, October 12, during the Opening General Scientific Session at the CNS Annual Meeting.
Academy Award Winner Spike Lee’s iconic body of storytelling has made an indelible mark on filmmaking and television. He is currently in post-production on his latest joint High and Low, his fifth film with Denzel Washington. He previously directed Da 5 Bloods for Netflix. He also released She’s Gotta Have It (which he created and wrote) as a series for the streamer. He is in post on a multi-part documentary on activist and athlete Colin Kaepernick for ESPN Films.
In August 2021, he directed and produced the four-part documentary essay NYC EPICENTERS 9/11➔2021½ released by HBO and streamed on HBO Max. His directed version of David Byrne’s American Utopia was also released by HBO. In 2018, the visionary filmmaker co-wrote and directed the Academy Award-nominated and critically acclaimed hit feature BlacKkKlansman, which won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
His career spans over 30 years and includes: She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, She Hate Me, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna, Red Hook Summer, Old Boy, and Chi-Raq. Lee’s outstanding feature documentary work includes the double Emmy Award-winning If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise, a follow up to his HBO documentary film When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and the Peabody Award-winning A Huey P Newton Story. In the Television arena, his Netflix original series She’s Gotta Have It, ran 2 seasons on the platform. The series was a contemporary update of his classic film.
Lee is also known for his legendary Air Jordan TV commercials and marketing campaigns with Michael Jordan for Nike. In 1997, he launched the advertising agency Spike DDB, a fully integrated agency with a focus on trendsetter, cross-cultural, and millennial audiences. He recently directed new additions to the Capital One “Road Trip” national campaign featuring Samuel L. Jackson and Charles Barkley.
In addition to his films, TV series, and commercials, Lee has directed a number of short films for artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Public Enemy, Branford Marsalis, Bruce Hornsby, Miles Davis, and Anita Baker.
Spike Lee is a five-time Oscar nominee and was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2015 for his lifetime achievement and contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences. He is a graduate of Morehouse College and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he is a tenured Professor of Film and Artistic Director. Lee’s Production Company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks is based in Da Republic of Brooklyn, NY.