Do the Right Thing

35mm Print!

Set on one block of Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy “Do or Die” neighborhood at the height of summer, this 1989 masterpiece confirmed Spike Lee as a writer and filmmaker of peerless vision and social engagement. Over the course of a single day, the easygoing interactions of a cast of unforgettable characters give way to heated confrontations as tensions rise along racial fault lines. Punctuated by the anthemic refrain of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power,” Do the Right Thing is a landmark in American cinema, as politically and emotionally charged and as relevant now as when it first hit the big screen.

STAFF PICK – Selected by Faraja Mukome