Opinion on Spike Lee’s viewpoint

Spike Lee’s opinion that you cannot create a film properly when trying to reflect the experience of a certain group – gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, or culture if you are not a part of it is something that I agree with to an extent. This is because you can’t capture the essence of what these groups go through in terms of discrimination and fighting for rights unless you have experienced it yourself. Even if you do extreme research including interviews with people from the groups or witnessing a protest/hateful remarks on these groups yourself; that is an experience of a bystander. Plus, every individual person’s story is different, and so making the mistake of basing an entire movie about a specific group on one person’s experience can set the wrong impression on how it truly is – since it’s different for everyone.

Certain groups such as gender and race, the most commonly known groups to have a movie about since they tend to have large audiences, are the most sensitive. These groups should be created by someone who has personal experience with what it’s like; otherwise the context can be taken out of proportion. Life imitates art, therefore movies have a big impact on how the world works, which is why certain subjects should be carefully presented or else the wrong impression can be made and make matters in the real world worse. Plus a large controversy over the film can build up and it would have a low success rate.

However, some of the best films that approach these topics are created by directors outside of these groups. I believe that certain people can direct these films with high levels of maturity and understanding, that it is not disrespectful to the audience and doesn’t send the wrong message. Plus, hateful audience members such as racists and sexists who know it is directed by a member of the group may claim that it is over-exaggerated and sending a completely wrong message. It is known that an outsider’s perspective is usually more accurate than the insider’s perspective. Therefore a movie about issues that groups of people face, created by someone who observes rather than takes part, could be taken more seriously and gain more respect from particular audiences that aren’t apart of the groups. Plus people in these groups may respect the fact that someone who isn’t struggling understands what they go through despite no personal experiences with it.

So in my opinion, it’s a mistake for someone unbeknownst to the struggles to be the ones to present it to the world, as audiences may treat these movies as a learning experience.  So if the wrong idea is shown in these films, a big breakout may happen and the movie’s success rate will plummet. However, certain directors know how to approach these issues respectfully and maturely. Overall, I believe when using a director who is outside of a group that the movie is trying to reflect, choose wisely and make sure they have researched properly and have high levels of respect for people.