Spike Lee

This c. 1990 photo of Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee, born 1957) by Jesse Frohman hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“Spike Lee is an innovative and provocative filmmaker with no qualms about confronting hot-button issues of race and class in his feature films and documentaries. In 1986, he scored an indie hit with his first full­ length motion picture, She's Gotto Have It. Written, directed, and produced by Lee (who also played one of its characters), the film was shot in under two weeks, on a budget of $175,000, and earned more than $7 million at the box office.

Having received wide critical acclaim since the 1980s for his original, pioneering work, Lee has brought varied projects to the screen, including Do the Right Thing (1989), Malcolm X (1992), and Bamboozled (20-00). His probing documentaries include 4 Little Girls (1997), an examination of the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006), a study of Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on New Orleans and the federal government's inadequate response to the tragedy.” – National Portrait Gallery