Please join Best Video Film & Cultural Center for the third film in our July Screening Series: Spike Lee Retrospective, BlacKkKlansman on Tuesday, July 30th, at 7pm.
Tickets are free to Best Video Members/$10 for non-members. The Best Video Coffee Bar will be open for beer, wine, café drinks, and free popcorn.
GET YOUR NON-MEMBER TICKETS HERE
BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott and Lee, loosely based on the 2014 memoir Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth. The film stars John David Washington as Stallworth, along with Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, and Topher Grace. In addition, it also marked Harry Belafonte's last feature film before his death in April 2023. Set in the 1970s in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the plot follows the first African-American detective in the city's police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan chapter.
The film was produced by Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Shaun Redick, Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, and Jordan Peele. It was packaged by Andy Frances, Stallworth's manager. QC Entertainment purchased the film rights to the book in 2015. Lee signed on as director in September 2017. Much of the cast joined the following month, and filming began in New York State.
BlacKkKlansman premiered on May 14, 2018, at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. It was theatrically released in the United States on August 10, 2018, a day before the first anniversary of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Lee's direction, the performances (particularly of Washington, Driver and Grace), and timely themes. Critics noted it as a return to form for Lee. It received six nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Lee's first directing nomination), and Best Supporting Actor for Driver; and won for Best Adapted Screenplay, making it Lee's first competitive Academy Award. The American Film Institute also selected it as one of the top 10 films of 2018. At the 76th Golden Globe Awards it earned four nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama.
BVFCC would like to acknowledge and thank several organizations for their generous funding which allows us to present our monthly Screening Series. Special thanks go to CT Humanities, CT Office of the Arts, and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.