Spike takes on Trish Regan and Bloomberg Television

Spike Lee–the legendary director behind such films as: Do the Right Thing, She’s Gotta Have It, Hoop Dreams, and Malcom X–stopped by Bloomberg Televisions’ “Street Smart” with Trish Regan, and things got heated.

He was on hand to field questions about his new project that he is funding through Kickstarter. Since July 21st, when he announced said project, Spike has been harshly criticized by many inside the film industry. They are upset that he is using a platform that is meant to help young independent artist–who mostly can’t finance their projects–to petition the public for support. Spike, who has been making films for over three decades, is assumed to not suffer from these same issues.

Trish Regan jumped right into critiquing Spike’s methods, right in the introduction. This caught him off guard. Immediately feeling pressure to defend himself and to refute these claims.

When he was asked why he went to Kickstarter, he emphatically responded by saying: “I’ve been doing Kickstarter before there was Kickstarter…because crowd funding is the new wave to get financing. Crowd funding, where you go directly to your base…and I’m going directly to the people.”

As the interview nearing its end, Spike was then asked if the backlash could be traced back to the fact that he is asking for donations from the public sphere, instead of private friends or stars. “Yes, we’re talking about technology; we’re talking about social media. When I was trying to raise $175,000 for She’s Gotta Have It…there was no internet. Those days are over.”

Its good to see that the passion is still there. Spike has already received over $500,000 in donations. He forcefully explained that he will not hurt young filmmakers.

He still has a ways to go, we’ll see if Spike and company can reach their $1.25 million goal. You can check out the interview below.

Jimi (@Nativejimi)