This Day in History: Spike Lee’s Debut Film “She’s Gotta Have It” Premieres in 1986

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Independent filmmaker Spike Lee, right, is shown with actress Tracy Camilla Johns at a release party for his film, "She's Gotta Have It," Aug. 1986 in New York. Lee says he wants to make honest films about black people and doesn't believe there are any films by and for blacks. (AP Photo/Mario Suriani)
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Director Spike Lee’s first feature-length film, “She’s Gotta Have It,” premiered in theaters on August 8, 1986.

“She’s Gotta Have It” is a comedy that follows Nola Darling, a free-spirited Black woman living in Brooklyn, New York, and her relationships with three suitors. Lee himself appears in the film as one of those suitors, a bike messenger named Mars Blackmon.

This Oct. 5, 2019 file photo shows Spike Lee at the grand opening of Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. Lee’s 1986 film “She’s Gotta Have It,” is among 25 films to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Invision/AP, File)

Among Lee’s other notable works are “Do the Right Thing” and “School Daze,” his second and third feature-length films. “Do the Right Thing” earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Through his production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, Lee has produced dozens of films—many of them known as “Spike Lee joints”—since the 1980s.


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