Part of Music City Mondays.
Co-written with siblings Joie and Cinqué Lee, Spike Lee’s CROOKLYN is a semi-autobiographical portrait illuminating the life of the lively Carmichael family and their vibrant Bedford-Stuyvesant community. Schoolteacher and loving Carmichael matriarch Carolyn (Alfre Woodard) runs a no-nonsense household, working hard to keep the lights on and raise her nine-year-old daughter Troy (Zelda Harris) alongside her four rowdy brothers with little help from her sensitive, struggling jazz-musician husband Woody (Delroy Lindo). Troy proves adept at holding her own while navigating adolescence amid the fertile chaos of one dynamic Brooklyn summer in 1973.
Joie Lee conceived the high-spirited CROOKLYN screenplay as a lyrical celebration of her Brooklyn childhood and, together with her brothers, helped develop her story in honor of their mother who died when Joie was 14. Featuring one of the best soundtracks of the ‘90s, co-starring music from the Stylistics, Sly and the Family Stone, the Staple Singers, Johnny Nash, Curtis Mayfield, Cymande, the Chambers Brothers, the J.B.’s, The Delfonics, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and so much more. A narrative compliment to SUMMER OF SOUL.
“What defines CROOKLYN is the style, the attitude, and the authentic sense of place through the Lees’ personal history. It feels confidential. We’re exposed to an exact place at an exact point in time, with something to say about memory’s convoluted way.” —Blake Goble, Consequence “A quarter century later, the film stands strong as a cinematic feat on the director’s extensive resume…. The film’s enduring power lies in Spike’s ability to capture the heart of what love and loss looks like for the Carmichael family, and by extension, any family.” —Danielle Cadet, Refinery29
