She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Made on a shoestring budget She's Gotta Have It ushered in the U.S. independent film era of the 1980s, launched Spike Lee's career, and brought black female sexual empowerment to the fore as Nola juggles three lovers . Now the basis for Lee's popular Netflix series of the same name, She's Gotta Have It is a landmark film debut by one of the world's greatest living directors. 

Do The Right Thing (1989)

One of the definitive great works of modern cinema, Do The Right Thing is one of only 12 movies listed in the American Film Institutes top 100 list made after 1982 (the other 88 are all made before 1982). Focusing on one hot day in Brooklyn, Lee's landmark film explores racial tension in late 80s Brooklyn in a spectacularly funny, thought provoking, visually dazzling and astonishingly still (sadly) all too relevant way. all fuelled by Public Enemy's iconic protest song Fight The Power, that was created at Lee's request for the movie's soundtrack. 

Girl 6 (1996)

With a soundtrack entirely created by Prince, Girl 6 is every bit as provocative, steamy, wild, and fun as you might expect. An all star cast that includes Debi Mazar (Goodfellas), Michael Imperioli (Sopranos), Madonna, John Turturro (Do The Right Thing, The Big Lebowski) and even Quentin Tarantino, Theresa Randle (Bad Boys) stars as young black actress Judy, who turns away from the chauvinistic male film industry and opts for a more sympathetic (and female) boss in the world of phone sex operators. Pulitzer Prize winning author Suzan-Lori Parks's fierce and unsparingly frank script is a both a brilliant raunchy comedy, and social commentary.

CHI-RAQ (2015)

Ever audacious, Spike Lee addresses Chicago's seemingly insurmountable levels of gun and gang violence through this daring musical adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata in which a group of females band together to withhold sex from their male partners in a bid to force them to stop the turf wars and killing. An all star cast including Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Basset and Samuel L. Jackson bring dynamism to this bombastic, urgent, moving, sharp, hilarious, satisfyingly ambitious firecracker of a movie. 

Blackkklansman (2018)

Starring John David Washington (son of longtime Lee collaborator Denzel Washington) and Adam Driver the film is based on the true story of the first black detective in the 1970s Colorado Springs Police Dept. Pitched to Lee to by Get Out director Jordan Peele (the movie's producer) in a six word text as "Black man infiltrates Ku Klux Klan", Spike immediately set about making one of his most vital works that is in equal parts entertaining and hilarious as it is terrifying and shocking, giving Lee his first ever Oscar win.  

SUMMER OF SAM (1999)

It's the summer of 1977 in New York city, the discos are full, there are city wide power outages, the Yankees are about to win the world series and a killer is on the loose. Like Do The Right Thing, Summer of Sam shows the sweltering pressure cooker of a NY neighborhood but this time the long shadow of (real life) serial killer 'Son of Sam' David Berkowitz hangs over the city. As the paranoia spreads two friends, philandering hairdresser Vinny (John Leguizamo), and punk obsessive Ritchie (Adrien Brody) feel the effects of that unpredictable summer in the Bronx as Studio 54, CBGB, unforgiving humidity and murder collide in this innovative portrait of city gone mad.