Joie Lee

An anthology of eleven vignettes featuring star-studded casts of extremely unique individuals who all share the common activities of conversing while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes.

Sal is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.

Spike Lee's take on the "Son of Sam" murders in New York City during the summer of 1977 centering on the residents of an Italian-American Northeast Bronx neighborhood who live in fear and distrust of one another.

Fired from his job, a former executive turns to impregnating wealthy lesbians for profit.

Khaila Richards, a crack-addicted single mother, accidentally leaves her baby in a dumpster while high and returns the next day in a panic to find he is missing. In reality, the baby has been adopted by a warm-hearted social worker, Margaret Lewin, and her husband, Charles. Years later, Khaila has gone through rehab and holds a steady job. After learning that her child is still alive, she challenges Margaret for the custody.

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

Infatuated with the idea of becoming rich, college student Jonathan Corliss secretly dates Dorothy Carlsson to gain the approval of her wealthy father. When Dorothy tells Jonathan that she is pregnant and that her father will deny her inheritance if he finds out, Jonathan murders her, but he stages her death as a suicide. As Jonathan works his way onto Mr. Carlsson's payroll, Dorothy's twin sister, Ellen, investigates the apparent suicide.

A struggling actress in New York City takes a job as a phone sex operator.

Fraternity and sorority members clash with other students at a historically black college during homecoming weekend.

Dr. Hess Green becomes cursed by a mysterious ancient African artifact and is overwhelmed with a newfound thirst for blood. Soon after his transformation he enters into a dangerous romance with Ganja Hightower that questions the very nature of love, addiction, sex, and status.

Fifteen Black men gather in South Central LA to take a cross-country bus trip to attend the Million Man March in Washington, DC in October 1995. Among the attendees are an eclectic set of characters, including a laid-off aircraft worker, a man whose at-risk son is handcuffed to him, a Black Republican, a former gangsta, a Hollywood actor, a cop of mixed racial background, and a white bus driver. All make the trek discussing issues surrounding the March, including manhood, religion, politics, sexuality, and race.

Keith, a freelance journalist, knows sex sells. With the help of a personal ad, he decides to combine business and pleasure through a piece of freelance investigative reporting on the dating scene: 30 dates in 30 days, A Personal Journal. The research takes him beyond his wildest expectations. Keith's world begins to unravel when he meets a girl who sees right through him. Can his cool be liquefied by a funny thing called love? Is this true happiness or is it the prelude to a core meltdown?

Reunited after a 17-year separation, Walter, an Angolan immigrant, is joined in the U.S. by his wife and teenage daughter. Now absolute strangers sharing a one-bedroom apartment, they discover a shared love of dance that may help overcome the emotional distance between them.

The Behind-the-Scenes documentary of the dramatic comedy Do the Right Thing.

The story of Nola Darling's simultaneous sexual relationships with three different men is told by her and by her partners and other friends. All three men wanted her to commit solely to them; Nola resists being "owned" by a single partner.

A beach runner and bookworm has difficulty communicating with his son. He meets a psychic on a pier at the beach and soon his world turns topsy-turvy with a serial killer coming between him and his son. The ensuing E.S.P. experiences and danger bond father and son.

Leonard Schiller once counted among New York's literary lions, but illness and ten years of writer's block have lowered his profile, almost to the point of obscurity. When Heather Wolfe, an ambitious literature major, asks to interview him for her thesis on his work, her interest forces him to address the issues that he has avoided all these years, and stirs in him feelings he has long forgotten, much to his daughter's consternation.

A man stuck in the reveries of his youth tracks down the boyhood friend he once tormented, only to find that simpler times were more complicated than he thought.

A brother and sister, sitting in a coffee bar, bicker mildly about whose idea it was to come to Memphis and which kind of cigarette is fresher. Danny, their waiter, comes by offering refills; after determining they are twins, he guesses which is the evil one. Without a pause, he sits down and offers his theory about Elvis's twin. He drones on. The good twin finally speaks up, giving her own opinion. The waiter is unfazed. After his boss finally calls him back to work, the twins are free to resume their bickering amidst the coffee and cigarettes.

After September 11th, six Lower Manhattan residents must deal with pain on their own. Yet in doing so, they find that their lives are inexplicably linked. "Ash Tuesday" examines the loneliness inherent in New York life, but it does so with a refreshing wit and humor that will leave you smiling.

The lives of 19 rather disagreeable people momentarily converge in a Brooklyn heat wave one Friday afternoon in director Cinque Lee's (Spike Lee's brother) collection of urban character studies.

Spike Lee and others reflect on this impactful film, more than two decades later.

Window on Your Present is Cinqué Lee's first feature film, which he wrote and directed in the late 1980s. The film takes place in a world where color and love do not exist. The people who live in this dreary world have nothing to live for and often end up taking their own lives. However, two unlikely lovers discovery that there is something else that is special that exists outside of their horrid world.

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.

“The image is constructed from a 1939 still photograph of the filmmaker’s mother. The multilayered soundtrack is styled as a radio commercial of the period” (Amy Taubin). Screened at MoMA in April and May of 2023. https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8726

“Joie Lee describes this heartbreaker as ‘an epistolary exploration of my mother’s untimely passing’” (Amy Taubin) Screened at MoMA in April and May of 2023. https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/8726

The lives of 19 rather disagreeable people momentarily converge in a Brooklyn heat wave one Friday afternoon in director Cinque Lee's (Spike Lee's brother) collection of urban character studies.

A Brooklyn teen learns she was born HIV-positive.