There’s no better place to screen “Do The Right Thing,” Spike Lee’s still-blistering and sweaty ensemble masterpiece, on its 25th anniversary than the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Located just a short distance from the Bedford-Stuyvesant block — specifically Stuyvesant Avenue, between Lexington and Quincy — where the film was shot, the storied venue is an extremely visible reminder of the changes that have overtaken the neighborhood and the tensions that still simmer, a problem that Lee continues to be vocal about, much to the dismay of supporters of gentrification.
The celebratory screening of “Do The Right Thing” will launch a complete retrospective of Lee’s films, running June 29-July 10, and co-presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The series includes everything from “Malcolm X” and “Jungle Fever” to more obscure work such as “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads,” his NYU thesis film, and “4 Little Girls,” a documentary about the 1963 bombing at a Birmingham, Alabama church that killed four girls, aged 11 to 14.
The series is also a reminder that behind all the noise — much of it created by the man himself — Lee is one of the best American filmmakers still working, whose career, if spotty at moments, is only so because he refuses to fall into a specific mode of working. Is there another American narrative filmmaker that could make films as different as “Girl 6” and “Clockers,” one a comedy whose colors pop and the other a gritty drama that’s seemingly devoid of it?
A moving special addition to the series is a tribute to the actress Ruby Dee, on June 29. The actress, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 91, was an iconic artist and civil-rights activist who starred in “Do The Right Thing” and “Jungle Fever.” The tribute, which is free to the public, will feature friends and colleagues along with clips from her most famous work.
