Spike Lee at the 2025 Entertainment Community Fund Gala in New York. There too, he gave attendees moving perspective on his artistic journey and his profound relationship to the legendary leader Malcolm X. He shared that the book that had the greatest impact on his life was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley. That was the first time he experienced it, growing up in junior high school. Lee made it clear how profoundly the experience of this book altered the course of his own life. Most important book ever read The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley in junior high school.
Lee is committed to Malcolm X still—so much so, that he reads the book every year. “I read that book every year. Once I had the opportunity to make that film — Dreaming of a Future Without Racism — I understood I had to take a deep dive into Malcolm’s life. And so I resolved to become a serious pupil of his legacy.
Lee reflected on some of his previous works and gave a thrilling discussion of the world premiere of his newest film. Titled Highest 2 Lowest, it opened in theaters on August 22. This episodic drama is the fifth collaboration between both Lee and Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington. The film is an update of both Akira Kurosawa’s original 1963 Japanese film, High and Low. In this gritty reboot relocated to New York, Washington plays a music mogul who finds himself the target of a kidnapping scheme. The cast features Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera and A$AP Rocky.
Lee managed to accomplish the Highest 2 Lowest campaign. He got donations from a number of big names in the Black community, including Oprah Winfrey, Prince, Janet Jackson and Tracy Chapman. The very first of these contributions, he announced on a crowdsourced press conference from Harlem, were notable for lacking strings attached. “Each meeting I had, I was asking for a larger sum,” Lee remembered. This story highlights some of the challenges that she experienced through the entire fundraising process.
The filmmaker’s previous work on Malcolm X is still widely considered one of the highlights of his legacy. Despite good critical reception, the film made just over $48 million globally against a budget of approximately $33 million. In 1993, it went on to win two Academy Awards, which included Denzel Washington’s Oscar-nominated performance for Best Actor. During the TFF session, Lee reflected on the struggles he experienced behind the camera while making Malcolm X. He said, “When Warner Bros. let the bond company take the movie in postproduction and kill it, that nearly killed me.”
