The Emory Cinematheque Presents: School Daze (1988)

Directed by Spike Lee
1988 | 121 min. | 35mm print provided by UCLA Film & Television Archive
Introduced by Dr. Beretta Smith-Shomade and Actor/Dancer Kyme Hersi-Sallid.
Coming off the success of SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT, Spike Lee wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the film SCHOOL DAZE in 1988. The film visualizes life at a fictional, historically Black college, Mission College, one modeled after his alma mater Morehouse College and the other schools of the Atlanta University Center. During this homecoming week, Lee’s musical illuminates concerns being grappled with in 1980s Black collegiate culture surrounding class, color stratification, and pledging at an HBCU.
SCHOOL DAZE fosters debates on a multiplicity of fronts. Talking with students at Fisk University, Lee recalls: “The fraternity members were upset about how fraternities were portrayed in the film. We had 90 minutes of heated dialogue” (LOS ANGELES SENTINEL). In a community debate on the film in Chicago, educator Carol Adams expressed that Black folks desire to be accepted by the majority made them afraid to let the world in on “our secret color and class divisions” (CHICAGO DEFENDER). And writer Toni Cade Bambara notes that within weeks of its release, it became “the subject of extravagant claims by folks who’d seen it and loved it, who’d seen it and not liked it, and who hadn’t checked it out yet but had their ear cocked to Communitysay.” Actor Billy Porter cites SCHOOL DAZE as one of his top three life changing films declaring: “It was us…It was enlarging, my dream territory. I can be on screen?!”
The film stars Laurence Fishburne, Giancarlo Esposito, Tisha Campell, and Kyme Hersi-Sallid. There will be a talk back after the screening with actor Kyme Hersi-Sallid who stars as Rachel in the film.
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The Emory Cinematheque is a theatrical venue offered by Emory University’s Department of Film and Media. Each semester on Wednesday nights at 7:30pm in White Hall 208, the Cinematheque hosts professional screenings introduced by Emory professors and special guests. All Cinematheque events are free and open to the public. The Cinematheque presents this screening event as part of our series 40 YEARS OF BROTHER SPIKE LEE, a retrospective of the trailblazing director curated by Emory Professor of Film and Media, Beretta E. Smith-Shomade.