Cast of Spike Lee’s ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ Weigh in on the Film at ABFF In New York

Cast of Spike Lee’s ‘Da Sweet Blood of Jesus’ Weigh in on the Film at ABFF In New York


Spike Lee attends world premier of "Da Sweet Blood of Jesus" at ABFF in NYC

Spike Lee:

All my work is valid. I wasn’t trying to get validation. I was just trying to get it done. If you do an independent film, you do it outside the studio system. You have more input and you have more control. That’s just basic.

This is not a vampire movie. Vampires can’t go into Fort Greene projects in the daytime. My number one goal with any movie is to tell a story. I’m a storyteller. Every time I do a film, I’m just telling a story.

When you do a film through crowdfunding whether it be kickstarter or indiegogo, you become an independent filmmaker not working within the studio system. It gives you a lot more freedom. Malcolm X was a studio film. Do the Right Thing was a studio film so I’m not saying I’m going to banish myself, I’m adaptable. So do not think this a film saying screw Hollywood, that’s not the case at all. But there are some films the studios just don’t want to make. No studio would have made “She’s Gotta Have It” and that was my first film. So it all just depends on what the subject matter is.

The message of this film is what you think you saw. I respect the audience’s intelligence, so I can’t tell you what you saw or how you felt. It’s art. People all have different reactions to it. I don’t tell people what the message of my films are anymore.

In the words of Bill Gunn, “Addiction in this film is a metaphor. Blood is a metaphor”. Like a lot of my films you can take a lot of things out of it and it’s up to the audience to decide.


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