BlacKkKlansman production notes

A Spike Lee Joint
Running Time: 2 hour 14 minutes

THE CAST
Ron Stallworth…….John David Washington
Flip Zimmerman…….Adam Driver
David Duke…….Topher Grace
Patrice Dumas…….Laura Harrier
Walter Breachway…….Ryan Eggold
Felix…….Jasper Pääkkönen
Kwame Ture…….Corey Hawkins
Ivanhoe…….Paul Walter Hauser
Connie…….Ashlie Atkinson
Beauregard / Narrator…….Alec Baldwin
Jerome Turner…….Harry Belafonte

THE FILMMAKERS
Directed by…….Spike Lee
Written by.Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee
Based on the book Black Klansman by…….Ron Stallworth
Produced by Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Raymond Mansfield, Jordan Peele, Spike Lee, Shaun Redick

Table of Contents

I.    Synopsis…….     4
II.    An Incredible True Story Comes to Life…….    5
III.    A Powerful Ensemble Takes Shape…….    6
IV.    The Experience of Making BlacKkKlansman…….    8
V.    It’s Not About the Past – This is a Film For Right Now…….     11
VI.    About the Production…….     12
VII.    Ron Stallworth: In His Own Words…….     15
VIII.    About the Cast…….    17
IX.    About the Filmmakers…….    23
X.    Credits…….    33

MORE BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

SHORT SYNOPSIS

From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American Hero. It’s the 1970s, and Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first African-American Detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. The young Detective soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation of a lifetime. Together, they team up to take down the Extremist Hate Group as the organization aims to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to The Mainstream. Produced by the team behind The Academy Award®-winning Get Out.

LONG SYNOPSIS

From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero.

It’s the 1970’s, a time of great social upheaval as the struggle for Civil Rights rages on. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes The First African-American Detective on The Colorado Springs Police Department, but his arrival is greeted with skepticism and open hostility by The Department’s rank and file. Undaunted, Stallworth resolves to make a name for himself and a difference in his community. He bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.

Posing as a racist extremist, Stallworth contacts the group and soon finds himself invited into its inner circle. He even cultivates a relationship with the Klan’s Grand Wizard, David Duke (Topher Grace), who praises Ron’s commitment to the advancement of White America. With the undercover investigation growing ever more complex, Stallworth’s colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), poses as Ron in face-to-face meetings with members of the Hate Group, gaining insider’s knowledge of a deadly plot. Together, Stallworth and Zimmerman team up to take down the organization whose real aim is to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to The Mainstream.

Produced by The Team behind the Academy Award®-winning Get Out, BlacKkKlansman offers an unflinching, true-life examination of Race Relations in 1970’s America that is just as bracingly relevant in Today’s Tumultuous World.

Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures in association with Perfect World Pictures present a QC Entertainment/ Blumhouse production, a Monkeypaw/ 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production, BlacKkKlansman. John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Corey Hawkins, Laura Harrier, Ryan Eggold, Jaspar Pääkkönen, Ashlie Atkinson. Costume designer, Marci Rodgers. Executive producers, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Jeanette Volturno, Win Rosenfeld, Matthew A. Cherry. Production designer, Curt Beech. Music by Terence Blanchard. Editor, Barry Brown. Director of photography, Chayse Irvin, CSC. Produced by Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Ray Mansflied, Jordan Peele, Spike Lee, Shaun Redick. Written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee. A Spike Lee joint.  

AN INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY COMES TO LIFE

Get ready for some “Fo’ Real Fo’ Real Shit.”

In the mid-1970s, Ron Stallworth broke barriers as The First African-American Detective serving on The Colorado Springs Police Department. A rising star with real potential, Stallworth distinguished himself as an exemplary Detective in his first major undercover assignment, attending a lecture delivered by Black Panther Party Leader Kwame Ture. Soon after, he stumbled across the newspaper ad that would forever change the trajectory of his life. In bold black-and-white was a recruitment message from the Ku Klux Klan, seeking new members. Through a series of daring encounters, Stallworth was invited into the inner circle of the self-described “Organization.” He even cultivated a personal relationship with none other than the leader of The Hate Group, David Duke, who never suspected Stallworth’s real identity or race.

Decades later, a retired Stallworth detailed his incredible experiences in the 2014 Memoir Black Klansman, relating the jaw-dropping tale of how a Black Cop came to be a card-carrying member of the KKK. Almost immediately, Hollywood began calling with offers to bring his book to the screen. But Stallworth, wisely, was wary, unwilling to allow his life story to fall into the wrong hands.  Then came QC Entertainment who acquired the rights to the book, and following a successful partnership on “Get Out” that Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw joined QC’s Sean McKittrick and Ray Mansfield to produce the film.  All immediately agreed the singular voice of Spike Lee was the one to bring Stallworth’s story to the screen.   When Jason Blum’s Blumhouse joined soon after, the reunited “Get Out” producing team was complete.

Over the course of a remarkable 30-plus year career, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Spike Lee has crafted an indelible body of work dating back to his 1986 indie breakthrough She’s Gotta Have It. With such films as Do the Right Thing, Malcom X, Inside Man and the four-part documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Lee has proven himself time and again to be one of America’s most original and prolific Writer-Directors. He has built a singular reputation as a formidable, uncompromising creative force whose Art is rooted in truth as well as a tireless, outspoken proponent for Social Justice.

Peele contacted Lee personally to gauge his interest in the project. “Jordan Peele called me up,” Lee says. “He wanted to see if I wanted to do it.” The Filmmaker was immediately intrigued: “It reminded me of The Dave Chappelle Skit, but this was real,” Lee says, referring to a famous sketch in which Chappelle played a Blind Black Man who joins The Klan, not realizing that he isn’t white.

“I felt that this movie had so much in common with Spike’s work, tonally,” Peele says. “It’s funny. It’s suspenseful. It’s powerful. And it exists in this genre space, and at the same time, it’s a true story. So, I sent the script to Spike, along with the book. A couple days later, he already knew the script better than I did. The guy is a Master. And since that moment, I’ve just been kind of in awe with his process and how he works.”

Lee turned to University of Kansas Tenured Film Professor and frequent collaborator Kevin Willmott (Chi-Raq) to discuss a take on Stallworth’s story and on the early script written by David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel. Through their retelling of Stallworth’s dangerous mission to bring down the KKK, they sought to underline the striking connection between Past and Present, highlighting themes that could not be more pertinent to today’s world.

The story might be set in the 1970’s, but for Lee and Willmott, BlacKkKlansman was not a period piece.

“Kevin and I spoke and we knew what we had to do—we had to make it Contemporary so people could connect it to the Crazy World we all live in today,” Lee says.

By the time the duo flew to L.A. to meet with producers McKittrick, Jason Blum, Ray Mansflied, Peele, and Shaun Redick they knew exactly what they wanted to achieve with The Film, and their vision was the key to unlocking the right way to share Stallworth’s story with the world.  “It definitely needed a voice, a Filmmaker with perspective which is the very definition of Spike Lee,” says McKittrick.  “We were always drawn to the power of Ron’s story -- the scariest part to me is how relevant it is to what is going on in this country today.  Spike and Kevin Willmott gave the script voice,” says McKittrick. 

“This is the story of a Man going up against the Greatest Hate he sees in Our Country,” adds Mansfield. “The nerve that takes—if this story wasn’t true, you’d never believe it.”

“Ron Stallworth, what he did changed society just a little bit,” says Redick. “He had the guts to make a difference.”

A POWERFUL ENSEMBLE TAKES SHAPE

With a greenlight in place, Lee and Willmott began working on their draft of the screenplay, which features both real-life figures and purely fictional characters. In Spike Lee’s mind, there was no doubt about who should star as Ron Stallworth: John David Washington, the young actor and former football player whose biggest project to that point was the HBO television series “Ballers.” Lee had given Washington his first film project—the actor made his debut at just six years of age alongside father Denzel Washington in Lee’s landmark 1992 biopic Malcom X.

Washington says he was elated to get the call about the role from the director he’d so long admired. “Spike Lee has a very unique way of recruiting and pitching stuff,” John David Washington says. “It was a phone call, very brief, ‘I got a Book for you. Read it.’ I was blown away, obviously, just by the fact this really happened, this was a true story. We talked about it a little bit, The Film and what he was thinking about and how he wanted to do it. I mean, this is a guy I’ve idolized since I was a kid. He gave People of Color, Men and Women, a Voice, a Platform, and he chose me. I was beyond excited and just couldn’t wait to get to work.”

For Flip Zimmerman, the agent who poses as Ron in face-to-face meetings with the KKK, Lee cast Emmy-nominated actor Adam Driver (“Girls,” Star Wars: The Last Jedi). Although more experienced than Stallworth in the field, Zimmerman nevertheless finds himself navigating circumstances well outside of his depths in his encounters with virulent racists. Flip’s experiences with the members of The Hate Group also prompt him to examine his own relationship to his Jewish heritage. “Coming face to face with pure hatred makes you reassess your values,” Driver says. “Whether a personal history is important or not is something that he gets to explore over the course of the movie. That he’s more of a self-reflective person I thought was a fun thing to investigate.”

Topher Grace was cast in the pivotal role of David Duke—someone the actor describes as “one of the worst men in the history of America.” Although he was overwhelmed by the opportunity to work with Lee, preparing to play Duke in the film required weeks of studying hateful ideology. “It was the worst month of my life—all I’m doing is watching David Duke and listening to his rhetoric,” Grace says. “I listened to his news radio show—which is still on—because throughout the film you hear me doing radio. In a sense, his voice doesn’t age, so it’s very similar to what it was like in the ’70s. I read his autobiography, My Awakening, which is kind of a thinly disguised Mein Kampf. And it’s a doorstop. It’s a really thick book, and it was so hard to get through.”

Grace also watched Duke’s early 1980s appearances on episodes of Phil Donahue’s talk show. “I noticed that he kept using the phrases ‘America First’ and ‘Make America Great Again,’” Grace says. “It really jumped out because I only heard these phrases for the first time a couple years ago.”

As Patrice, a committed Activist and Community Organizer Ron meets during his undercover work, Lee cast actress Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming). “I think it’s super rare to find a strong woman, especially a strong woman of color, who feels fully rounded and like an actual human being when you read a script,” she says. “This was just everything I could have asked for.”

Prior to filming, Harrier not only reached out to the Alumni Association at Colorado College about the work the Black Student Union had been performing on campus at the time; but she also read Angela Davis’ autobiography and met with Emory University Law professor and former Black Panther Party leader Kathleen Cleaver. “Spike had her over to his house and we all went there and just talked to her and asked her questions about her time in The Panthers and what that experience was like for her, and her relationship with [her Husband and fellow Panther leader] Eldridge [Cleaver].”

BlacKkKlansman features Harry Belafonte, himself an icon of the civil rights movement, in the pivotal role of Jerome Turner. Belafonte says that when Spike Lee spoke to him about the part: “He just said to me, ‘Mr. B.,’ he said, ‘I want you in my movie.’ He sent me the part, and it wasn’t very big, didn’t last very long, but the time that we had was really quite intense. I welcomed the opportunity to be in a Spike Lee movie. When I looked at the film in its entirety, I realized that he’d really touched on a very important subject matter.”

From the start, the ensemble understood the responsibility of telling Stallworth’s real-life story and communicating the film’s timely, topical themes. “I’m very picky with the people who I cast in my films,” Lee says. “The number one goal every Film is to get, as best you can, the right people for the roles you have in The Film. Money prevents that sometimes, schedule prevents that sometimes—those factors play a part in casting. But I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I will say that this is cast is stellar. The performances are stellar. Everybody knew the film we were making and did what they had to do to do their part whether it was large or small.”

In September of 2017, Lee gathered the actors for two weeks of extensive rehearsals, which kicked off with a table-read of the script. The thorough preparation ensured that production would move swiftly once cameras began to roll. “We had to look at it from all aspects to make it come together,” Lee says. “We spent the time. We did what we needed to do with the script so for the most part we wouldn’t have to be messing around on the set. We had to get it straight.”

Stallworth traveled from his home in Texas to New York for the read-through, spending some time with Lee and Willmott but mostly helping to advise young star Washington, addressing any questions the actor had about Stallworth’s past. “He was very generous with his information, just the emotions of what was going on during that time, during the investigations, what he looked for, how to be a detective, and the relationships that he established,” Washington says. “What was so surprising to me was the amount of support that he received from his department to pursue this case.”

Stallworth made himself available to all the actors, giving his full support to the project. He also made it a point to show the cast his KKK membership card, which he carries in his wallet to this day. “David Duke personally prepared that and put it in the mail to me after a phone call with me inquiring, ‘Where’s my card?’” Stallworth says. “He sent me that card, and I’ve carried it since January ’78 when I got it.”

Says Grace: “David Duke and a bunch of different people deny that this ever happened. Well, it happened. I mean, they inducted a Black Man into The Ku Klux Klan, to tell you a little something about these idiots. I just thought it was amazing and kind of symbolic of what his journey was and how amazing a man Ron is.” 

The EXPERIENCE OF MAKING BLACkKkLANSMAN

BlacKkKlansman began filming in Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn, New York, in October 2017, with production stretching into December of that year; the shoot included a short visit to Colorado Springs for some exterior location shooting. Washington says working on The Film felt like traveling back through time—shooting the sequence in which Ron, in his first undercover assignment, is sent to attend a lecture delivered by Kwame Ture that the authorities fear might stoke racial unrest was especially powerful. He says he was mesmerized by the charismatic performance co-star Corey Hawkins delivered as Ture.

“He channeled the Spirit of that Man, Kwame Ture,” Washington says of the Straight Outta Compton Actor. “I remember that day. It was this Club environment. Spike had been warming up the crowd, had a real DJ going, spinning records. We were dancing for a good 40 minutes, 45 minutes while they were setting up. Corey was just pacing back and forth. He was in The Zone. And that Brother got up there and delivered. I really felt like I was in Colorado Springs in the ’70s, and there’s Kwame Ture, speaking to us, addressing us.”

Lee and Willmott combed through classic speeches that had been delivered by Ture (the Trinidad-born activist born Stokely Carmichael) to write Hawkins’ monologue. Hawkins says the scene was unusually nerve-wracking to shoot. “It was the first time in a long time that I had been really nervous,” he says. “I’m not that Dude. I come on set, I do my work and I’m prepared, so I’m confident. Not that day.

“But the first time I walked out there and I started saying these words, I’m delivering this speech, all of a sudden, there was this kinetic energy in the room,” Hawkins continues. “You can hear Spike in the back saying, ‘Say it again!’ ‘Damn right!’ The Crowd were hearing the words for the first time, and they heard the words about being shot down like Dogs by Racist Cops and it resonated with them. Once we got through the first pass, I could see Spike was happy. He was proud that we did Kwame’s spirit justice.”

After that initial assignment, Ron embarks on his own undercover operation, answering a newspaper ad placed by the KKK looking for new recruits and connecting with the leader of the local chapter, Walter Breachway (Ryan Eggold). Unable to meet with him without blowing his cover, Flip Zimmerman agrees to pose as Ron, and together, the two detectives embark on their covert investigation. But they initially come at the mission from very different angles.

“Flip starts The Movie with a very work-based MO where there’s nothing personal about it—the ends justify the means to getting the job done,” Driver says. “He kind of blanches at Ron’s personal commitment to it. It doesn’t really make sense to him. But then as time goes on, he can’t help but be personally invested.”

On screen, Ron and Flip share an undeniable rapport rooted in something much deeper than standard buddy-cop tropes. “We dealt with real issues between them, not the procedural kind of stuff you see in Police Movies,” Willmott says. “Ron is having to deal with all this racial language that he’s having to hear over the phone from the Klan. When he finds out that Flip is Jewish and has not really acknowledged his ethnic background, that becomes really a link between the two of them.”

The characters’ bond reflected the real-life relationship between Washington and Driver, Lee says. “That happened really in rehearsal,” the Director says. “That didn’t just start showing up on set. That happened in rehearsal. They had a good vibe and you see it on screen.”

“He is mMister focused,” Washington says of Driver. “He is so intense. If you’re lying in the scene, if you have any false moments, he’ll know. You gotta be truthful the whole time. He pushed me as an Artist to not skip any steps, to keep the rhythm, to be present with him and the elements of what’s going on. He’s just a Good Dude, Man, and I admire how he works, his work ethic, how professional he was. It was just an honor and a privilege to be able to tell a story with him for sure.”

As the investigation continues, Stallworth finds himself speaking via phone to David Duke, who has hit upon a new strategy to expand the Klan’s appeal, sanitizing the group’s image hateful rhetoric into something that sounds less overtly offensive on its face. “In the ‘70s, there had been a perception of racists, maybe they had beer bellies, they were good old Southern boys,” Grace says. “David, he’s very media friendly and very intelligent. He always wears a three-piece suit. He changed that perception of racism at the time to what it is today.”

The exchanges between Stallworth and Duke are so shocking they’re almost comical—the screenplay’s disarming use of humor struck Grace as ingenious. “Something that was so interesting about reading the script and then being on set was that the tone was different than I would’ve thought,” Grace says. “Usually when you make a film like this, it’s very somber because the subject matter is very somber. But something that’s brilliant about Spike and brilliant about Jordan Peele is that they understand how seductive humor is. It actually brings more people into a story.” 

Although BlacKkKlansman is in no way a comedy, Lee and Willmott intuitively understood that humor would need to be woven into the fabric of the story to help relieve some of the incredible tension on screen. “The only real note Jordan Peele gave us was, ‘Make it funny,’” Willmott says. “The thing that we try to do on the film is examine these heavy issues—race and hate groups and the Klan and the whole legacy of the horrible things they’ve done in this country. You’ve gotta find a way to make it entertaining. The fact that Ron was able to infiltrate the Klan the way he did—that’s where the humor comes from, from revealing the absurdity of it all.”

Adds Lee: “The Motherfucking Ku Klux Klan is absurd. The Motherfucking Alternate Right is absurd. The Motherfucking Neo-Nazis, they’re absurd, too, so you bring absurdity into the movie.”

The levity was needed to help the actors work through harrowing scenes in which they were often called upon to deliver line after line of the most extreme hate speech imaginable. “John David Washington would definitely try to keep it light while we were shooting,” says producer Shaun Redick. “For stress relief, he’d do karate moves. Spike left that in the movie. That’s him in between scenes, when he starts throwing punches and he kind of realigns himself, it’s his method. John David uses martial arts to reset himself, to relax.”

“Spike, he really trusted me, you know, and I trusted the process,” Washington adds. “It was great to discover things with Adam, with Laura, with Topher. It just came so fluidly. It came so naturally, the things that were happening. That you can’t prepare for, but the confidence was rooted in the preparation. The kind of confidence that I gained as an actor, he’s responsible for. It’s beyond measure.”

Grace admits he found it difficult to portray a man as loathsome as Duke—a KKK initiation scene in which a Crowd gleefully cheers during a screening of 1915’s The Birth of a Nation was especially harrowing. But he says Lee was an invaluable source of support. “There were a couple days on set, I had to take a moment and just detox—it felt so horrible and oppressive and wrong,” the actor says. “What’s so great about Spike Lee, he would come over and just say, ‘Hey, man, don’t worry. This is a terrible day. I’m not enjoying myself, but it’s in service of something I’m trying to say.’ He really made me feel as comfortable as you can, saying those words and doing those things.”

“Spike Lee has made his career confronting these issues publicly and on a worldwide scale,” adds producer Raymond Mansfield. “I don’t think there are many people out there who have the experience, the persona, the personal character to command a set like that. It was a remarkable set to be on every day.  He’s not walking on egg shells. He’s taking all his activism, everything he’s learned, and putting it into this great film.”

Asked if the film’s subject matter took any sort of emotional toll, Lee offers an emphatic, “No.” The work was all in service of telling a powerful and necessary story. “The emotional toll is doing The Oscar Nominated Documentary 4 Little Girls where that’s something that happened for real,” he says. “[Making a film about] the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, and I have to interview the Parents of The Little Girls who lost their lives in that Terrorist Attack, now that took a toll.”

BlacKkKlansman boasts scenes of dynamic verve and swagger, triumph and heartbreak, but one of the film’s most profound moments involves Harry Belafonte as Jerome Turner recounting the True Story to the members of Patrice’s student union his first-person recollections of the lynching of Jesse Washington he witnessed as a young man. Bracing to hear and beautifully conveyed by Belafonte, the scenes offer a palpable reminder of the unspeakable horrors perpetrated by KKK. “It was a way to make the Klan real,” Willmott says.

Belafonte’s day on set was the last day of filming, and Lee asked his Crew to dress in tuxedos to honor the living legend. “That was just the most epic way to end it,” says Harrier. “I mean, he’s this Icon of the Civil Rights Movement. I just couldn’t believe it was him. I don’t think anyone was really acting in the room. We were all so genuinely moved. I feel so honored to have met him and worked with him.”

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE PAST—THIS IS A FILM FOR RIGHT NOW

In 1989, Spike Lee took the Cannes Film Festival by storm with Do the Right Thing. This May, the director did it again when BlacKkKlansman made its World Premiere as one of only two American titles In Competition and went on to claim the prestigious Grand Jury Prize. The film was hailed as an electrifying true-life tale that celebrates the accomplishments of one truly remarkable man and a powerful indictment of the resurgent white supremacist ideals flourishing in America under the current administration. The relevance of Ron Stallworth’s story was unmistakable.

“The subject matter is timeless,” Washington says. “We’re still fighting the same stuff today. I guess that’s why it was such a relief and a surprise and a joy to know that Men and Women of all Colors in that Department were working with Ron to accomplish his goal. If they were doing that in Colorado Springs in the mid-’70s, then we can do it now, today. This is Us, this is Human Behavior right here we’re watching.  This isn’t Fiction.”

Adds Peele: “I feel like we’re living at a time where pieces of this Country have lost touch with who The Good Guys and The Bad Guys are. Nazism, White Supremacy, the Klan, are The Bad Guys. They’re Hate Groups. And we seem to be at a point where The President of The United States is calling out good people on both sides of what should be a clear polarity. This Movie, it’s not only a crowd pleaser, but it’s something that we can all go and experience that helps reset our moral compass when it comes to Racism and White Supremacy in this Country.”

To further underscore the Film’s topicality, BlacKkKlansman will open in U.S. theaters Aug. 10, a date chosen to coincide with The One-Year Anniversary of The White Nationalist Rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia that claimed the life of Counter-Protester Heather Heyer. Audiences surely will be entertained by Stallworth’s inspirational life-story—but the film also just might encourage some viewers to undertake the good fight.

“Like Malcolm X once said, ‘We must make the struggle using anything at our disposal to survive,’” says Harry Belafonte. “Only through Art and only through The Power of Cinema and The Power of Literature can people be informed because most of White America doesn’t spend time lingering on the plight of Black America. They’re too busy trying to survive and enjoy the privileges that they have worked for. But I don’t think there can be any harmony to our existence in what we are as a Nation until we pay full attention to this injustice that’s going on with Millions of its Citizens.”

Offers Lee: “This Film is an examination of The World we live in. This Film is an examination where there’s a Cultural Battle of Love versus Hate like The Knuckle Rings that Radio Raheem wore in Do the Right Thing, which came from the Tattoos Robert Mitchum had on his fingers in Night of the Hunter. Love versus Hate. You cross your fingers and hope and pray that people connect with it when it opens nationwide Aug. 10.”

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

From Production Design to Art Direction, Camerawork to Costume Design, every effort was made to recreate the details of the era. The 1970’s aesthetic also influenced the overall look of the film, with Cinematographer Chayse Irvin shooting on classic 35mm stock and drawing inspiration from such classics of the period as The French Connection. But when developing certain shots or sequences, both Lee and Irvin embraced a spirit of iImprovisation—mixing formats and approaches to create a more experimental, more contemporary feel. (A bracing black-and-white segment featuring Alec Baldwin as a vile bigot spewing racist invective was shot on Ektachrome during Pre-Production.)

“I never want The Director or Myself or The Actors to feel really boxed in by a particular idea,” Irvin says. “We were kind of feeling things out. We started reacting to things as they were developing, especially off the actors, feeding off that energy.”

The approach of marrying 35mm film with Super 16 video, GoPro and other formats was one that had worked well for Irvin in his projects with the visual artist Kahil Joseph including Beyoncé’s Epic Video Album Lemonade, and one that the Cinematographer credits Lee with pioneering. “He was doing that back in the day, too, with Malcolm X and Clockers,” Irvin says. “He was playing with a lot of different processes.”

Production designer Curt Beech sought to highlight the different worlds of the film visually while at the same time using the sets and environments to underline the themes at work in the script. Ron’s apartment was hip, progressive and cool, while Felix’s house—the home of the character played by Jasper Pääkkönen that routinely hosts local Klan meetings—was rooted entirely in the past. “I thought it was important to show the Klan members not as a bunch of backroom rednecks but as the people next door,” says Beech, who previously worked with Spike Lee on his Netflix series, “She’s Gotta Have It.” “The living room should be pretty nice, a place that seems fairly comfortable and ordinary, but at the same time dated and that the ideas that are shared there are dated and outmoded. These are not the ideas of the future.”

The Police Precinct where Ron worked hovered somewhere in between, Beech says. The basic design dates to the 1950’s, but the place is now worse for the wear, covered in tobacco stains. “It’s this slightly older space that is a little outdated and in need of a facelift, both physically and conceptually,” he says. “They need to rethink their policing and who they’re hiring.” 

Both Ron’s apartment and Felix’s house were practical locations—Ron’s home was found in Brooklyn, while Felix’s residence was located upstate in Ossining, New York, the same town that doubled in certain scenes for downtown Colorado Springs. Beech and his team sourced authentic vintage furniture for both homes as well as equipment for Felix’s basement print shop. “That basement is a pretty well-organized nerve center for the organization,” Beech says. “It was a place where they were producing literature, sending word out. If it were today, it would be very modern, almost Mission: Impossible-style, so scary and well-funded. I was after the 1970s version of that.”

The Precinct was outfitted with period-appropriate props from the desks and chairs to the typewriters and ashtrays—even the pencil holders. Tellingly, Ron’s desk is somewhat smaller than all the others and positioned in the far corner so that the other officers’ backs face him. “It was a very purposeful arrangement to ostracize him from the rest of The Cops,” Beech says.

In terms of color, Beech opted for a more muted palette of neutral browns, dark greens and dark reds, so that the white of the Klan robes would stand out in stark contrast. It was a decision he arrived at in concert with Costume Designer Marci Rodgers, who also previously worked with Lee on “She’s Gotta Have It”; The Department Heads wanted to ensure that Washington as Ron would be noticeable and distinct in every scene, so his costumes became just a bit brighter than those worn by the people around him.

For her part, Rodgers began preparing for BlacKkKlansman by watching both Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind. Her research also took her to the Library of Congress and to Howard University—her Alma Mater and The Alma Mater of Kwame Ture—where she reviewed historical documents and periodicals from the era.

“It was interesting to go through those archives and see his journals—at that point, he was Stokely Carmichael. He hadn’t gone to Africa,” Rodgers says. “Even to see that change and that transition within these documents [was useful]. Then also I was able to look at archival Ebony Magazines, Jet Magazines. I was just going through every book within that era, taking pictures and really looking at what people wore, even the hair accessories. The accoutrements were really a thing back then. It was really about the jewelry, like the beads, the necklaces, things like that.”

To dress Topher Grace as David Duke, Rodgers reviewed archival photos of the Klan Leader, taking note of certain telling details. “I noticed that David Duke, he wore fat ties or stripes,” she says. Historical images of such Black Power icons as Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver directly inspired Patrice’s look: “At the time, The Women kinda had a uniform that were a part of that movement,” Rodgers says.

Actress Laura Harrier says that the costume was vital in helping her feel comfortable as the young intellectual. “I’ve always wanted to do a movie in the ’70’s,” Harrier says. “I’ve always loved The Clothes and The Music and Films, and it was really important, too, in finding the character. Once I put on that Afro Wig and had The Black Leather Jacket and had The Glasses, she just kind of dropped into me. It was really instrumental in making Patrice for sure.”

Rodgers procured prime vintage fashions for the film, but for the character of Ron, she created certain iconic pieces including his denim walking suit and his period-correct marshmallow shoes. Spike Lee also requested that Rodgers put Washington in a classic pair of Nike Cortez. “I was fortunate enough to meet Ron Stallworth and I asked him what he wore,” Rodgers says. “He told me some days he would wear a walking suit. He would wear jewelry here and there that kinda made him feel like he was smooth, so to speak. I would see John David put on his costume and transform. It was real, like we actually had teleported back to the ’70s, and that’s all I really wanted.”
 
RON STALLWORTH: IN HIS OWN WORDS

QUESTION: Why did you decided to write the book Black Klansman?
RON STALLWORTH: I wrote the book because back in 1978, I was the first black detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department—I was also the youngest detective in the history of the department. I was sitting in my office in the intelligence division, and one of the things we did was monitor newspaper activity every day to see what was going on that might have an impact on our city. On this particular day, I saw this ad that said ‘Ku Klux Klan, for information contact’ and then there was a P.O. box. I basically sat down, wrote a note to this P.O. box. I said, ‘I’m a white, pure white American man with Aryan blood and I hate…’ you name the ethnicity, I threw it in there. I told them that I wanted to join the Klan to do something about this. So, I made a mistake, I signed my real name—don’t ask me why other than I had a brain cramp that day. I dropped this in the mail and forgot about it. Maybe two weeks later, I got this phone call. The gentleman identified himself as the local chapter president—he called himself the organizer— and said that he had gotten my letter and I had some very interesting ideas and he wanted to follow up with me. That launched the investigation.

QUESTION: What was the atmosphere in Colorado Springs in October of ’78?
RON STALLWORTH: There was no racial activity going on in Colorado Springs, nothing significant outside of any other community in the country. Colorado Springs was and is a military town. There are four military installations. You get a wide, diverse population group coming in and out of the town, and the fact that this particular ad in the newspaper cropped up, it stuck out. There had never been anything like that. Being a black man, I immediately seized on the fact that this is unique, this is something that’s worth exploring. But there was nothing in the town itself that was triggering it.

QUESTION: What was the most exciting part of this case?
RON STALLWORTH: Making a fool of David Duke. That’s probably the most exhilarating because David Duke had a master’s degree in political science from Louisiana State University. He is one hell of a debater. He was billing himself as the image of the new Klan, a newly resurgent, reorganized Klan who didn’t go around using the so-called N-word—a term that it hates, by the way. You can’t use any term to soften that word. He never went around in public using the N-word. He said it in private a lot, but not in public. That was part of his image reconstruction. He didn’t wear his Klan robes in public, that was part of his image reconstruction. And he marketed the Klan, best way to describe it, he marketed the Klan that he was involved in much like Donald Trump brands his name. So, he was not a dumb individual, but the fact that he and I were interacting with each other over the phone, I, at the time, only had a high school diploma, and I’m going up against this guy with a master’s degree. It was a battle of wits over the phone, and quite frankly I outwitted him. I got a lot of thrill out of that. I still do.

QUESTION: What were your thoughts on Topher’s portrayal of David Duke?
RON STALLWORTH: It’s an eerie feeling listening to Topher on the big screen because he has the uncanny knack of being able to sound like David Duke. He sounded like the David Duke that I dealt with in 1978. Even the makeup made him look very similar to the David Duke of that time period.

QUESTION: Did you have to practice voices with the detective who pretended to be you in person?
RON STALLWORTH: There was no attempt to disguise my voice. You have to understand, one of the dynamics of undercover work is you keep as true to your true self, your personality, as possible. The reason being, when you’re dealing with somebody in an undercover capacity, they could trip you up if you’re assuming an identity that’s too far removed from who you actually are. So, when you’re undercover, you go about doing what you do in the normal way. People who say—as I was told in the beginning—you can’t pull this investigation off because they’ll immediately recognize the difference in a black man’s voice versus a white man, my response to them was, What does a black man sound like? How am I so distinctly different in my speech pattern, my voice inflection, from a white man? That reality kinda slapped them in the face, and once they understood that they couldn’t justify that, we were able to move this investigation forward.

QUESTION: Did watching the film take you back a little?
RON STALLWORTH: I chuckled watching events that I had been involved in being portrayed on the big screen. I remembered those moments vividly. I mean, everything that happened is very vivid in my mind. It was a very surreal experience to be sitting there and watching that chapter in my life unfold, to hear my name spoken and to recognize that somebody thought that this was a story worthy of being told—and to realize that it has become a political statement on this country. All I did was plan on writing a book. I didn’t plan on making a big political statement about racial relations, Trump’s America or anything like that. Spike did a masterful job of connecting those dots.

QUESTION: Were you able to visit set during production?
RON STALLWORTH: Spike brought us to Brooklyn for the read-through, my wife and I. John David had a lot of questions about character development, how I felt here, how I felt there, what did I wear, how did I dress, did I know how to dance, and was I a good dancer back in the disco days? I held my own. Spike told everybody to put me on speed dial, and they had my number to contact me whenever they wanted.

QUESTION: What was it like working with Spike?
RON STALLWORTH: I find him to be very honest and real. There’s no pretense about him. He says what’s on his mind. He doesn’t care what people think. As one of the producers told me when Spike got a hold of the project, he said, ‘It’s Spike’s world, and we all live in it.’ I’m appreciative of him seeing a value in my story to wanna make it into a movie and I’m very pleased with the end result. I mean, who can be upset by Spike Lee directing a story about your life?
 
ABOUT THE CAST

JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON (Ron Stallworth) plays the lead role of Dennis in director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men alongside up-and-comers Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Chante Adams. The script was selected and developed as part of the 2017 Sundance Directors Lab. He also stars in the Anthony Mandler-helmed Monster, alongside Jeffrey Wright, ASAP Rocky, and Jennifer Hudson. The film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Washington can also be seen in Fox Searchlight’s Old Man and the Gun, directed by David Lowery playing opposite Casey Affleck, Elisabeth Moss, and Robert Redford. He got his big screen debut in Lionsgate’s Coco, directed by RZA, opposite Common and Jill Scott.
Prior to acting, Washington spent six years playing professional football before turning his attention to the screen. Shortly after, he booked his first-ever audition to play Ricky Jerret in the HBO series “Ballers” with Dwayne Johnson. His performance as Ricky has generated rave reviews with the show going into its fourth season in 2018.

ADAM DRIVER (Flip Zimmerman) was most recently seen starring in Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, alongside Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig. Driver is currently shooting Noah Baumbach’s next feature opposite Scarlett Johansson.
Driver won the Volpi Cup Award for Best Actor for Hungry Hearts, which premiered at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival. Other recent credits include Martin Scorsese’s Silence, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special, and J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens. His other film credits include While We’re Young, This Is Where I Leave You, Tracks, Inside Llewyn Davis, Lincoln, Frances Ha, and J. Edgar. Driver also starred on HBO’s critically acclaimed series “Girls.” His performance in “Girls” garnered him three Emmy® nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

In 2019, he will be seen in the first Broadway revival of “Burn This,” directed by Michael Mayer. His other Broadway credits include “Man and Boy” (dir. Maria Aitken), opposite Frank Langella, as well as “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” (dir. Doug Hughes) opposite Cherry Jones. Off-Broadway, he starred in John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger” (dir. Sam Gold), which earned him the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actor. Prior to that, he took the stage as Louis Ironson in The Signature’s revival of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” (dir. Michael Greif).
Driver is a Juilliard graduate and is a former Marine who was with 1/1 Weapons Company at Camp Pendleton, CA.

TOPHER GRACE (David Duke) first caught the attention of audiences as one of the stars of the iconic television series, “That ‘70s Show,” before going on to make his mark on the big screen in numerous films. Prior to Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Grace shot the feature Under the Silver Lake, opposite Andrew Garfield. The film is a noir crime thriller set against the backdrop of L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood. Both films will have their world premiere in this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
He is currently in production on the Fox 2000 feature film Breakthrough, based on Joyce Smith’s book about her 14-year-old son who fell through a frozen lake one winter and was proclaimed lifeless. Grace plays the small town’s hip new pastor who helps the mother through this horrific time, galvanizing the town.

Grace was recently seen in the David Michôd Netflix black comedy War Machine, opposite Brad Pitt. Based on Michael Hastings’ book The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, the film follows a four-star U.S. military general charged with commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan who is taken down by his own hubris and a journalist’s no-holds-barred exposé. Prior, Grace starred in the Sony Pictures Classics drama Truth, opposite Robert Redford, Cate Blanchett, Dennis Quaid, and Elisabeth Moss. The film tells the true story of a group of journalists—with Grace portraying researcher Mike Smith—who uncover a conspiracy that would bring down President George W. Bush’s presidency.

Grace recently made the move behind the camera and completed production as producer and star of the romantic musical comedy, Opening Night, directed by Isaac Rentz. The film features Anne Heche and Taye Diggs and follows a failed Broadway singer who now works as a production manager who must save opening night by wrangling his eccentric cast and crew.

On the big screen, Grace won the National Board of Review award for Breakthrough Performance by an Actor, as well as a New York Film Critics award, for his roles in In Good Company and P.S. in 2004. As a member of the ensemble cast in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, he also won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2001. Additional film credits include Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar; Gary Marshall’s ensemble Valentine’s Day, opposite Anne Hathaway, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx and others; Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 3; Robert Luketic’s Win a Date with Tad Hamilton; Mike Newell’s Mona Lisa Smile, opposite Julia Roberts; and Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve, among many other memorable roles including, most recently, American Ultra, opposite Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.

On the small screen, along with “That ’70s Show,” his credits include Curtis Hanson’s Golden Globe winning TV film, “Too Big to Fail,” for HBO. He also appeared in “The Beauty Inside,” a 2012 social film developed by Intel and Toshiba. Directed by Drake Doremus and co-starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the film is broken up into six episodes interspersed with interactive storytelling that all takes place on the main character’s Facebook timeline. Grace won a Daytime Emmy in the category of Outstanding New Approaches—Original Daytime Program or Series.
In 2014, Grace made his Off-Broadway debut in Paul Weitz’s acclaimed “Lonely, I’m Not,” opposite Olivia Thirlby, for Second Stage.

Grace grew up in Darien, Connecticut and currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

COREY HAWKINS (Kwame Ture) gained recognition with his breakout performance as iconic Music Producer and Hip-Hop legend Dr. Dre in F. Gary Gray’s N.W.A. Biopic Straight Outta Compton. Produced by Legendary and distributed by Universal Pictures, the film spent three consecutive weeks in the #1 spot at the box office and is the highest-grossing music biopic in history, earning over $201 million worldwide.

Hawkins recently completed production on Christoph Waltz’s directorial debut Georgetown, opposite Waltz, Annette Bening, and Vanessa Redgrave. The film follows an ambitious social climber who marries a wealthy widow in Washington, D.C. in order to mix with powerful political players. In March 2017, he starred in Warner Bros.’ Kong: Skull Island for director Jordan Vogt-Roberts opposite Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, and Samuel L. Jackson. Hawkins’ additional film credits include Universal Pictures’ Non-Stop as well as Winter’s Tale for Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3.

On the small screen, Hawkins starred as Eric Carter in FOX’s 24 reboot, “24: Legacy” opposite Miranda Otto and Jimmy Smits. Hawkins also joined the cast of the AMC hit show “The Walking Dead” in 2015 as Heath. His character also appeared in the series’ sixth and seventh seasons.

On stage, Hawkins starred on Broadway as Tybalt in David Leveaux’s 2013 revival of “Romeo and Juliet” opposite Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad. In April 2017, he returned to Broadway in the anticipated revival of John Guare’s drama, “Six Degrees of Separation.” Hawkins received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play opposite Allison Janney and John Benjamin Hickey during the play’s two-month run. 

Hawkins is a graduate of The Juilliard School’s drama program and is a recipient of the prestigious John Houseman Prize.

LAURA HARRIER (Patrice Dumas) is a native of Chicago who began her career at 17 as an International Fashion Model where she traveled the world and graced the pages of Elle, Glamour, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, and others. Upon moving to New York to study acting at William Esper Studios, she soon landed principal roles in the AMC pilot “Galyntine” and the HBO pilot “Codes of Conduct” directed by Steve McQueen. She made her screen debut in Richard LaGravenese’s The Last Five Years and last year she starred as Liz Allan opposite Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Currently, Harrier can be seen as the face of Louis Vuitton in their latest campaign and also has joined the Bulgari family as one of the Brand’s Ambassadors for the second consecutive year.

RYAN EGGOLD (Walter Breachway) recently landed the lead role in NBC’s “Untitled Schulner/Horton Project” (FKA “Bellevue”). He spent five years on NBC’s “The Blacklist” and played the lead in the spinoff “The Blacklist: Redemption.” Ryan recently made his directorial debut with Literally, Right Before Aaron starring Justin Long and Cobie Smulders. The film premiered at Tribeca earlier this year. Born and raised in Southern California, Eggold is a graduate of USC’s theater program. He is a music and theater aficionado, and an accomplished musician, singer, director and playwright.

JASPER PÄÄKKÖNEN (Felix) recently wrapped filming the role of Halfdan the Black on “Vikings” for the History Channel. Prior to this, Pääkkönen completed filming on Charles Belleville’s Jet Trash opposite Robert Sheehan and Sofia Boutella. In 2013, he won a Jussi award in his native Finland for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his appearance as Harri in Leijonasydän (Heart of a Lion). He also appeared as the character Kapu in Finland’s highest grossing film Lapland Odyssey in 2010. Directed by Dome Karukoski, Lapland Odyssey won awards at the Jussi Awards and the Alpe d’Huez ICFF. In 2002, he was selected to play the main role in Bad Boys, directed by Aleksi Mäkelä, which previously held the title of the biggest box-office hit ever in Finland. For his performance, Pääkkönen received the prize for Best Actor at the Brussels Film Festival in 2003.

Pääkkönen is also a committed Fisheries Activist who was awarded Fisherman of the Year 2012 by Finland’s Minister of Environment Ville Niinistö. He arranged three conservation seminars held at Finland’s Parliament in 2013, 2014 and 2018 and acted as chairman alongside Finland's Minister of Development Pekka Haavisto. He has received official recognition for his Fisheries conservation work from the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FANC). He is a member of the Vision Fly Fishing world team and is a Fly Fishing ambassador for the iconic outdoor clothing company Patagonia. He has also appeared in Fly Fishing TV shows and DVDs as a celebrity guest.

Additionally, Pääkkönen is the founder and owner of Löyly, an award-winning architectural sauna & restaurant complex featured in the New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, GQ, Newsweek, the New York Post and other media outlets.

PAUL WALTER HAUSER (Ivanhoe) is known for his scene-stealing performance as 'Shawn Eckhardt' in the Neon feature I, Tonya starring opposite Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan & Allison Janney. Prior to that he heavily recurred in the DirecTV critically acclaimed drama series “Kingdom” for the Audience Network in the role of ‘Keith’ opposite Frank Grillo & Jonathan Tucker.  He is currently shooting the 30West/Film Nation Entertainment comedy feature Late Night written by Mindy Kaling & directed by Nisha Ganatra in NYC. Starring opposite Mindy Kaling, Emma Thompson, John Lithgow, Ike Barinholtz & John Early. Prior to that, he wrapped a series regular role in Fox’s “Unt. Ilene Chaiken Pilot” opposite Katie Holmes. He’s currently seen in theaters with Super Troopers 2 for Fox Searchlight as the Canadian doppelgänger to Kevin Heffernan’s “Farva.”

ASHLIE ATKINSON (Connie) is an accomplished actress whose numerous film credits include Clark Johnson’s Juanita with Alfre Woodard, The Wolf of Wall Street, Bridge of Spies, Certain Women, Compliance, All Good Things, The Invention of Lying, Eat Pray Love and more. On television, she’s been seen on such series as Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, Elementary, 30 Rock, Boardwalk Empire, Bored to Death, Louie, Rescue Me, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She won a Theatre World Award as well as Lortel and Outer Critics Circle nominations for originating the role of Helen in Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig.” Other New York theatre credits include “Steve” (The New Group); “The Ritz” (Roundabout Theatre Company); “The Butcher of Baraboo” (Second Stage Theatre); “Making Marilyn” (Bridge Theatre Company); and Sam Mendes’s world-spanning Bridge Project productions of “As You Like It” and “The Tempest.” Ashlie worked with Spike before on Inside Man.

ALEC BALDWIN (Beauregard / Narrator) has appeared in numerous productions on stage, in films and on television. He has received a Tony nomination (“A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1992) an Oscar nomination (The Cooler, 2004) and has won three Emmy awards, three Golden Globes and seven consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards as Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on NBC-TV's “30 Rock.” His films include The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Edge, It’s Complicated, Blue Jasmine, Still Alice, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and The Boss Baby among many others.

Baldwin is a 1994 BFA graduate of NYU’s Tisch School and received an honorary doctorate from NYU in 2010. He is Co-Chairman of the Board of the Hamptons International Film Festival. He is also the radio announcer for the New York Philharmonic. He has authored three books: “A Promise to Ourselves,” his memoir, “Nevertheless,” and with Kurt Andersen, “You Can’t Spell America Without Me.” Baldwin is the radio announcer for the New York Philharmonic. He serves on numerous boards related to the arts, the environment and progressive politics.

Baldwin is married to author and fitness expert Hilaria Thomas Baldwin. They have four children: Carmen Gabriela Baldwin, Rafael Thomas Baldwin, Leonardo Angel Charles Baldwin and Romeo Alejandro David Baldwin. His eldest child is his daughter, Ireland Baldwin. Baldwin hosts the classic television game show “Match Game” for ABC-TV. A portion of his proceeds are donated to charity.

HARRY BELAFONTE (Jerome Turner) has enjoyed an inordinately successful life in the performing arts. His RCA album “Calypso” made him the first artist in history to sell more than 1 million LPs. His first Broadway appearance in John Murrary Anderson’s “Almanac” earned him the coveted Tony Award. As the first black producer in television, he won an Emmy for his CBS production of “Tonight with Belafonte.” At the dawning of his film career, Carmen Jones took top critical honors and attracted Oscar nominations.

His many firsts in the overturning of racial barriers in the world of American culture are legend. Belafonte met a young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his historic visit to New York in the early 1950s. Belafonte and King developed a deep and abiding friendship that for Belafonte still stands as one of the most precious of his experiences.

Belafonte’s commitment to social justice has been ceaseless. Disturbed by cruel events unfolding in Africa due to war, drought, and famine, Belafonte set in motion the wheels that led to “We Are the World” on January 28, 1985. He contacted manager Ken Kragen, and they, along with others, guided and directed the project known as USA for Africa. Belafonte played a prominent role in ending the oppressive apartheid government of South Africa and his efforts contributed to the release of his friend Nelson Mandela after more than 27 years of incarceration.

In 1987, Belafonte was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, making him the second American to hold this title. He penned his memoir “My Song,” which was released in October 2011 along with the critically acclaimed HBO documentary “Sing Your Song.” Directed by Susanne Rostock, the film chronicles the life and times of one of America’s most groundbreaking entertainers and social activists through his own words, eye-witness accounts, FBI files and archival footage.

Belafonte has been honored by such diverse groups as the American Jewish Congress, the NAACP, the City of Hope, Fight for Sight, The Urban League, The National Conference of Black Mayors, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, the ACLU, the State Department, the Boy Scouts of America, Hadassah International and the Peace Corps. He has received The Albert Einstein Award from Yeshiva University, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize, the Acorn Award from the Bronx Community College for his work with children, and, in 1989, he received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for excellence in the performing arts.

He was the first recipient of the Nelson Mandela Courage Award and was honored at the White House with the 1994 National Medal of Arts from President Clinton for his contributions to our nation's cultural life. He has received honorary degrees from City University of New York, Spelman College in Atlanta, Tufts University, Brandeis University, Long Island University, Bard College and most recently Doctor of Humane Letters from Columbia University and many others. And he is the 2013 recipient of the Spingarn Medal, the most prestigious award bestowed by the NAACP.
 
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

SPIKE LEE (Director/Producer/Writer) has created an iconic body of storytelling that has left an indelible mark on Filmmaking and Television. His career spans 30 years and includes She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze, Do The Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Clockers, Girl 6, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, Bamboozled, 25th Hour, She Hate Me, Inside Man, Miracle at St. Anna, Red Hook Summer, Old Boy, and Chi-Raq.

Lee’s outstanding Feature Documentary work includes the double Emmy Award® -winning If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, a follow-up to his HBO documentary film When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts and the Peabody Award-winning A Huey P Newton Story. In the television arena, Lee is currently in pre-production on Season 2 of his Netflix Original Series She’s Gotta Have It, a contemporary update of the classic film. Lee is also known for his legendary Air Jordan TV commercials and marketing campaigns with Michael Jordan for Nike. In 1997, he launched the advertising agency Spike DDB, a fully integrated agency with a focus on trendsetter, cross-cultural and millennial audiences.

In addition to his films, TV series and commercials, Lee has directed Music Videos and Shorts for artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Public Enemy, Branford Marsalis, Bruce Hornsby, Miles Davis and Anita Baker. Spike Lee is a two-time Oscar® nominee (Do The Right Thing for Original Screenplay and 4 Little Girls for Documentary Feature) and was awarded an Honorary Oscar® in 2015 for his lifetime achievement and contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences.
He is a 3rd Generation graduate of Morehouse College and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he is a Tenured Professor of Film and Artistic Director. Lee’s Production Company 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks is based in Da Republic of Brooklyn, NY.

SEAN MCKITTRICK (Producer) is a veteran producer and a founding partner at QC Entertainment. For nearly two decades, McKittrick has championed bold storytellers and storytelling and has been integrally involved in every facet of film production as well as production and distribution financing.

Since launching in 2016, QC—standing for Quality Control—quickly has become a go-to company for financing and producing distinct, character-based, director-driven films.  McKittrick brought Jordan Peele’s original screenplay Get Out to QC Entertainment, which went on to become one of the company’s first films to develop, produce, finance and be involved in every step from the initial pitch through its blockbuster release.  The acclaimed film became a global box office smash and culminating with Peele winning an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay and Academy Award® nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and a Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya.  As producer, McKittrick garnered his first Academy Award® nomination alongside fellow producers Peele, QC’s Edward H. Hamm Jr., and Blumhouse’s Jason Blum.

Other recent QC project include:  Zoe Lister-Jones’ directorial debut Band Aid starring Lister-Jones, Adam Pally and Fred Armisen, which QC financed, produced and handled sales for the film’s distribution deal with IFC Films for North America and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions following its 2017 Sundance Film Festival World Premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section; Pride & Prejudice & Zombies written and directed by Burr Steers, a fresh twist on Jane Austin’s classic, that was released by Screen Gems; and A Futile & Stupid Gesture directed by David Wain and starring Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson and Joel McHale, which was released by Netflix following its World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Upcoming QC projects which McKittrick is producing include: The Oath, a sharp-witted dark comedy based on his original screenplay and starring Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, Carrie Brownstein, Billy Magnussen, Meredith Hagner, Jon Barinholtz, Nora Dunn, Chris Ellis and John Cho, which will be released this fall; and acclaimed actor Sharlto Copley’s feature directorial debut, Sapien Safari, a social comedy based on Copley’s original screenplay who will also co-star in the film.

McKittrick is currently in production on Peele’s next writing and directing feature film, US, which stars Academy Award® winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, and Emmy® winner Elisabeth Moss. McKittrick will serve as a producer alongside Peele, Ian Cooper, and Jason Blum.

Prior to QC, McKittrick and fellow QC partner Edward H. Hamm Jr. formed Darko Entertainment to produce and finance filmmakers with unique voices and help their films reach a wider audience. The diverse range of Darko films that McKittrick developed, financed and produced include: Bad Words, the directorial debut of Jason Bateman; The Box, starring Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella and James Marsden; Hell Baby, the co-directorial debut of actors/screenwriters Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, which had its World Premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival; writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait’s critically acclaimed film God Bless America starring Joel Murray; Jimi: All Is by My Side, written and directed by Academy Award® winner John Ridley; and World’s Greatest Dad, starring Academy Award® winner Robin Williams, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

McKittrick graduated from UCLA going on to develop and produce his first feature, Donnie Darko at 24-years-old. The film was first championed by the Sundance Film Festival in 2001 and has gone on to become one of the most successful cult films ever.

JASON BLUM (Producer) founder of Blumhouse Productions, is a two-time Academy Award® -nominated and two-time Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer. His multi-media company is known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-quality micro-budget films. In 2017, all three of Blumhouse’s wide-release, micro-budget movies opened to number one at the domestic box office—each based on an original concept.

Early in the year, the Blumhouse blockbusters Split from M. Night Shyamalan and Get Out from Jordan Peele, with combined budgets of less than $15 million, went on to gross more than $500 million worldwide. In October, Happy Death Day was the company’s third number one film of the year. In addition, Get Out was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2018—including Best Picture—and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.

Blumhouse also produced the highly profitable The Purge, Insidious, Sinister and Paranormal Activity franchises, which together have grossed more than $1.7 billion at the global box office. Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000 and grossed close to $200 million worldwide, launched the Blumhouse model and became the most profitable film of all time. The company’s titles also include The Gift, Unfriended and The Visit. Blum, who was nominated for an Academy Award® for producing Whiplash, has appeared on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list each year since 2015, received the 2016 Producer of the Year Award at CinemaCon and was named to the TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people in 2017.

In television, Blum won Emmys for producing HBO’s The Normal Heart and The Jinx and two Peabody Awards—for The Jinx and the documentary How to Dance in Ohio. In 2017, Blum launched an independent TV studio with investment from ITV Studios. Current television projects include Sharp Objects, a mini-series for HBO starring Amy Adams based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name, and a mini-series for Showtime based on journalist Gabriel Sherman’s reporting on former Fox News Chief, Roger Ailes. Blumhouse is also bringing The Purge franchise to television, co-producing a series with Universal Cable Productions for USA and SyFy.

Blumhouse’s multi-platform offerings include BH Tilt, a distribution company that takes advantage of new marketing strategies; Blumhouse Books, a publishing imprint with Doubleday; the digital genre network CryptTV; and Blumhouse Live which produces live scary events for companies like AB InBev.

Blum is a member of the Sundance Institute’s Director’s Advisory Group. He also serves on the Board of the Public Theater in New York and the Board of Trustees for Vassar College. Before founding Blumhouse, Blum served as co-head of the Acquisitions and Co-Productions department at Miramax Films in New York. He began his career as the producing director of the Malaparte Theater Company, which was founded by Ethan Hawke.

RAYMOND MANSFIELD (Producer) is a veteran producer and a founding partner at QC Entertainment. Mansfield has been integrally involved in film production, as well as production and distribution financing for nearly two decades. Since launching in 2016, QC has quickly become a go-to company for financing and producing distinct, character-based, director-driven films.

Mansfield served as Executive Producer on Jordan Peele’s feature directorial debut Get Out, which went on to become one of QC’s first films to develop, produce, finance and be involved in every step from the initial pitch through its blockbuster release. 

Other recent QC project include:  Zoe Lister-Jones’ directorial debut Band Aid starring Lister-Jones, Adam Pally and Fred Armisen, which QC financed, produced and handled sales for the film’s distribution deal with IFC Films for North America and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions following its 2017 Sundance Film Festival World Premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section; Pride & Prejudice & Zombies written and directed by Burr Steers, a fresh twist on Jane Austin’s classic, that was released by Screen Gems; and A Futile & Stupid Gesture directed by David Wain and starring Will Forte, Domhnall Gleeson and Joel McHale, which was released by Netflix following its World Premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Upcoming QC projects which Mansfield is producing include:  The Oath, a sharp-witted dark comedy based on his original screenplay and starring Barinholtz, Tiffany Haddish, Carrie Brownstein, Billy Magnussen, Meredith Hagner, Jon Barinholtz, Nora Dunn, Chris Ellis and John Cho, which will be released this fall; and acclaimed actor Sharlto Copley’s feature directorial debut, Sapien Safari, a social comedy based on Copley’s original screenplay who will also co-star in the film.

Prior to QC, Mansfield was Co-President of Movie Package Company (MPC), a packaging/finance/production company with a focus on the business aspects of filmmaking; structuring risk mitigated investment opportunities for financiers interested in the field of entertainment.  Over the course of his career, Mansfield has raised over $250 million for film “packaging” – development, production and distribution financing – structured numerous finance models, and negotiated worldwide distribution deals, intellectual property deals, and above-the-line talent deals.

Mansfield’s highlights prior to QC include: The Messenger, directed by Academy Award® nominee Oren Moverman and starring Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Steve Buscemi and Samantha Morton, which received multiple Academy Award® nominations including Best Screenplay & Best Lead Actor; crime-thriller Dog Eat Dog, written and directed by two-time Golden Globe and Palme d’Or nominee Paul Schrader, and starring Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage and Academy Award® nominee Willem Dafoe; Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, starring Academy Award® nominee Rinko Kikuchi which was co-produced by Academy Award® winner Alexander Payne and went on to garner multiple Independent Spirit Award nominations; and And So It Goes directed by Academy Award® nominee Rob Reiner and starring Academy Award® winners Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. 

Early in his career, Mansfield spent several years working with Bernie Mac while with management/production company, 3 Arts Entertainment, where he played a fundamental role in 20th Century Fox’s television series "The Bernie Mac Show.”
 
Mansfield graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Radio-Television-Film.

JORDAN PEELE (Producer) Oscar®- and Emmy®-winner Jordan Peele wrote, produced and directed the critically acclaimed blockbuster Get Out, which was recognized with four Academy Award® nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, Daniel Kaluuya for Best Actor, and earning Peele the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Peele was the co-star and co-creator of “Key & Peele” on Comedy Central. The hit series garnered more than 1 billion online hits and won a Peabody Award, an American Comedy Award, and received 12 Emmy Award nominations during its five-season run earning Peele an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series.

Peele formed his company, Monkeypaw Productions, to champion unique perspectives and artistic collaborations with traditionally underrepresented voices, while pushing the boundaries of conventional storytelling through genre. Monkeypaw is currently developing several television shows and films, as Peele continues to write and direct more original features.

Upcoming on the film slate, Peele is teaming up with Oscar nominee Henry Selick and Netflix on a stop-motion animation feature titled Wendell & Wild. Peele is co-writing the film with Selick, and will reunite with Keegan Michael Key in providing the voices for the title characters.

On the television side, Monkeypaw just released the Tracy Morgan series, “The LAST O.G.” at TBS to great acclaim. The show already has been renewed for season 2. Monkeypaw has developed and is producing “Lovecraft Country” for HBO in partnership with Bad Robot and Misha Green. Set in the Jim Crow South, this straight-to-series pickup is an anthological sci-fi thriller, which reclaims genre storytelling from the African-American perspective. Monkeypaw is also producing a reboot of the indelible cult classic “The Twilight Zone” for CBS All-Access, featuring all new original episodes, and the anticipated Amazon docuseries, “Lorena:” an exposé of the real story behind the infamous Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt domestic violence case and the advent of the toxic 24-hour news cycle with which it coincided. 

SHAUN REDICK (Producer) has successfully solidified himself amongst a limited number of experts in the field of feature film packaging, financing, production and worldwide distribution with over two decades as one of the industry’s leading motion picture packagers. Redick’s extensive level of knowledge and relationships began as a literary and international feature agent working for more than a decade with top writers, directors, stars, producers, financiers and distributors while at two of the industry's leading talent agencies: International Creative Management (ICM), and the William Morris Agency (now WME).

In 2017, Shaun Redick and Impossible Dream Ent partner, Yvette Yates, discovered Ron Stallworth’s book and true story for BlacKkKlansman, and brought it into their First Look at QC Entertainment where they developed the screenplay together with the original writers, Wachtel and Rabinowitz, before collectively bringing on board the Dream Team of Peele and Monkey Paw, Blum and Blumhouse, and Spike Lee and 40 Acres and a Mule, as well as Universal Pictures.

Also, in 2017, Redick executive produced with QC, Blumhouse, Jordan Peele & Universal Pictures the major motion picture, Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele and starring Allison Williams, Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, LilRel Howery, Lakeith Stanfield, Marcus Henderson and Betty Gabriel. Get Out became the best reviewed movie of 2017, as well as the most profitable movie of the year. Get Out received 4 Academy-Award® nominations and won for Best Original Screenplay.

In recent years Redick has produced many projects including multiple Academy-Award® nominee, The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster; multiple Independent Spirit Award nominee Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, with Academy-Award® winner Alexander Payne and starring Academy-Award® nominee Rinko Kikuchi; Sundance musical comedy hit Band Aid; Dog Eat Dog with Academy-Award® winner Nicolas Cage and Academy-Award® nominee Willem Dafoe and directed by legend Paul Schrader; And So It Goes, a romantic comedy directed by legend Rob Reiner and starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton; La Bare, a documentary directed by actor/filmmaker Joe Manganiello; highbrow horror thriller Nothing Left to Fear, produced with, and featuring original music by, iconic rock star guitarist Slash; In the Blood, directed by John Stockwell and starring former pro-fighter/action star Gina Carano; Powder Blue, starring Academy-Award® winner Forrest Whitaker, Jessica Biel and Academy-Award® winner Eddie Redmayne.

Look out for all genres and many new projects from Impossible Dream Entertainment, Shaun Redick’s newest venture. Launched in November 2017 with actress producer, Yvette Yates. iDream Ent. focuses on creating, developing, financing and producing feature films and series content for a wide demographic audience in North America and across the world. Also, coming soon from iDream Ent is new elevated horror thriller, Malicious.

As a talent and packaging agent, Redick was integrally involved in more than 100 movies, including: 13, starring Evan Rachel Wood and Academy-Award® nominated actress Holly Hunter; The Cooler (2003), starring Academy-Award® nominated actor Alec Baldwin and William H. Macy; Running Scared (2006), starring Paul Walker; MGM’s The Flock, starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes; The Upside of Anger, starring Joan Allen and Kevin Costner; Unknown, starring Jim Caviezel, Barry Pepper and Greg Kinnear; and Penelope, starring Academy-Award® winner Reese Witherspoon and Christina Ricci.

KEVIN WILLMOTT (Writer) co-wrote and is the Executive Producer of Director Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed film Chi-Raq. The film is on numerous best of 2015 lists including best film and best screenplay by The New Yorker Magazine.

Willmott’s feature film, Jayhawkers, tells the story of a group of unlikely allies who modernized college sports and changed Kansas University during the early stages of the Civil Rights movement. Jayhawkers stars Kip Niven ("Magnum Force," "Return to Lonesome Dove") as Coach Phog Allen, Jay Karnes (“The Shield,” “Burn Notice” “Gang Related”) as Chancellor Franklin Murphy and Trai Byers (“Empire,” Selma) as jazz musician Nathan Davis. 

Willmott, wrote, directed and acted in the award-winning film, Destination Planet Negro! available on Amazon Prime and ITunes, and he wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature film C.S.A: Confederate States of America, about America, had the South won the Civil War. C.S.A. premiered at the Sundance Film Festival was released theatrically in the U.S. by IFC Films. His other feature credits include 2009’s The Only Good Indian, 2008’s The Battle for Bunker Hill and Ninth Street, starring Martin Sheen and Isaac Hayes, which Willmott wrote, produced and co-directed. He is the executive producer of the critically acclaimed feature film, The Sublime and the Beautiful, directed by Blake Robbins. For television, Willmott co-wrote with Mitch Brian the mini-series “House of Getty” and “The 70's.”

As a Screenwriter, Willmott co-wrote Shields Green and The Gospel of John Brown with Mitch Brian. The script was purchased by Chris Columbus' 1492 Productions for 20th Century Fox. He also co-wrote Civilized Tribes for producer Robert Lawrence and 20th Century Fox. Producer and director Oliver Stone hired him to co-write Little Brown Brothers, about the Philippine Insurrection, and to adapt the book Marching to Valhalla by Michael Blake.

Willmott adapted and directed a stage version of The Watsons Go to Birmingham in New York and at Kansas City’s Coterie Theater. The play T-Money and Wolf, written with Ric Averill, dealing with the holocaust and contemporary gang violence, was selected as part of the New Vision/New Voices series produced by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Willmott directed the premiere performances of Now Let Me Fly, a new play by Marcia Cebulska commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision to segregate public schools. He also directed two documentaries Fast Break: The story of Legendary Coach John McClendon and William Allen White: What’s the Matter with Kansas, about the famed Kansas journalist.

Willmott grew up in Junction City, Kansas and attended Marymount College receiving his BA in Drama. He graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing and is currently a Professor in the Media and Film Studies Department of Kansas University.

CHARLIE WACHTEL (Writer/Co-Producer) is an L.A.-based independent filmmaker. He got his start as a Hollywood assistant, with stints at UTA, Benaroya Pictures, Weed Road and Echo Lake. Soon after, he fell into copywriting, writing for ad agencies and on the client side. Wachtel is from East Brunswick, New Jersey, and a graduate of the acclaimed FAMU Film School in Prague and American University.

DAVID RABINOWITZ (Writer/Co-Producer) is an L.A.-based screenwriter and performer. He got his start working as a multimedia producer for the Wall Street Journal. Since, he’s worked as a freelance video editor, copywriter, and motion graphics artist. Rabinowitz is from East Brunswick, New Jersey, and a graduate of Quinnipiac University.

RON STALLWORTH (Author) is the author of Black Klansman, a powerful memoir about his experiences serving as the first African-American detective in the history of the Colorado Springs Police Department. A 32-year, highly decorated law enforcement veteran who worked undercover narcotics, vice, criminal intelligence and organized crime beats in four states, Stallworth overcame fierce racial hostility to achieve a long and distinguished career in law enforcement.

CHAYSE IRVIN (Cinematographer) is an Canadian/American Cinematographer best known for his collaborations with Director/Artist Kahlil Joseph. Irvin’s first feature film as cinematographer was Medeas (2013) for which he won the prestigious Best Cinematography Debut at the Camerimage Film Festival. Soon after he began collaborating with Kahlil Joesph on numerous works of art eventually working together on Beyonce’s “Lemonade” in 2016. In 2017 at the Cannes Lions festival, Irvin won Gold for Sampha “Process,” Silver for John Malkovich x Squarespace, and Bronze Apple Watch Series 2 "Go Time”. In the same year Andrea Poloraro’s Hannah took home Best Actress award at Venice Film Festival for Charlotte Rampling and soon after Chayse won the Silver Hugo Best Cinematography Award at the Chicago International Film Festival. He is a member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

CURT BEECH (Production Designer) BlacKkKlansman marks Curt Beech’s third collaboration with Director Spike Lee. He also designed Season 1 and 2 of Spike’s inaugural television project, “She’s Gotta Have It.” Prior to BlacKkKlansman, Curt created the look of Amazon’s “The Dangerous Book for Boys,” CBS’s “Instinct,” Fox’s series “Wayward Pines,” and the TNT series “Good Behavior,” starring Michelle Dockery. His feature film design work includes Sasha Gervasi’s November Criminals and Susan Johnson’s Carrie Pilby. As an Art Director, he is best known for his work on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (winner of the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for Rick Carter), The Help, David Fincher’s The Social Network and JJ Abrams’ Star Trek. His other notable feature film work includes Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg, Get Smart, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, War of the Worlds and Mission: Impossible III. Curt is a four-time nominee for the Art Directors Guild award for Excellence in Production Design. Curt started his career teaching and directing theatre at The Horace Mann School in New York City, and holds an MFA from UCLA in Theatre and Lighting Design. A 12 time marathoner, Curt lives in New York with his wife, Mary Beech (CMO of Kate Spade New York), and two teenage daughters.

TERENCE BLANCHARD (Composer) has established a singular reputation thanks to his expansive work composing the scores for Spike Lee Films ranging from the documentary 4 Little Girls to the Epic Malcolm X, as well as his own discography of recordings such as A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina). He is a 2018 USA Fellow and a five-time Grammy-winning trumpeter/composer.

Blanchard has been a consistent artistic force for making powerful musical statements concerning painful American tragedies—past and present. With his current quintet E-Collective, he addresses the staggering cyclical epidemic of gun violence in this country with his new album Live, seven powerful songs recorded live in concert that both reflect the bitter frustration of the conscious masses while also providing a balm of emotional healing. With a title that carries a pointed double meaning, the album is an impassioned continuation of the band’s GRAMMY-nominated 2015 studio recording, Breathless.

The music of Live was symbolically culled from concerts performed at venues in three communities that have experience escalating conflicts between law enforcement and African American citizens: The Dakota in Minneapolis (near where Philando Castile was pulled over and shot by a cop on July 6, 2016); The Bop Stop in Cleveland (near where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot by police on November 22, 2014); and the Wyly Theatre in Dallas (near where police officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, Brent Thompson and Patricio Zamarripa were assassinated while on duty covering a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest on July 7-8, 2016). Experimental, electric and exotic, E-Collective consists of Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Charles Altura on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano and synthesizers, Oscar Seaton on drums, and new addition David “DJ” Ginyard on bass.

Blanchard began playing piano at age 5 and later trumpet beginning in summer camps alongside his childhood friend Wynton Marsalis. While studying jazz at Rutgers University, Blanchard was invited to play with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in 1982 before Marsalis recommended him as his replacement in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Following a string of collaborative recordings, he released his first self-titled solo album on Columbia Records in 1991, leading to a acclaimed often conceptual works and more than 40 movie scores, primarily feature films and documentaries for director Spike Lee, including HBO’s 4-hour When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

BARRY ALEXANDER BROWN (Editor) Brown has worked as a Director, Editor and Writer in Documentaries and Feature Films for over thirty years. He was nominated for an Oscar for his first feature length documentary, The War at Home. His first film is currently being remastered into a 4K version with a U.S. theatrical re-release this fall.
   
Brown started a long working relationship with the director Spike Lee when both were young, struggling filmmakers in the mid-eighties. Since, he has cut many of Lee’s feature films including Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, He Got Game, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour and Inside Man. Brown has once again returned to work with Spike on BlacKkKlansman for Universal Pictures. He has also worked with the acclaimed Indian director Mira Nair on such films as the Oscar-nominated Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding and most recently Disney’s The Queen of Katwe.

As a director, he has shot music videos and commercials as well as the critically acclaimed features Lonely in America and Winning Girls. His third feature, Last Looks, was shot on location in Turkey and was made to be the center piece of a transmedia novel, which he also wrote.

Beyond his career as a director and editor, he co-wrote and developed a television series with Spike Lee for CBS and recently authored a script titled Son of the South, a feature film that will be shot on location in Alabama in the fall of 2018.

MARCI RODGERS (Costume Designer) obtained a B.B.A. with a concentration in Marketing from Howard University, a Corporate M.B.A., from Florida International University, and a Certificate in Fashion Design and Marketing from London Fashion College: Central Saint Martins in London, England all before graduating with an MFA in Costume Design from the University of Maryland.

Most recently, Rodgers worked with director Spike Lee designing Season 1 of the Netflix series “She’s Gotta Have It,” which was recently nominated for best Television— Contemporary TV Film Series by the Costume Designers Guild. In addition, she is designing season 2 of “She’s Gotta Have It.” She recently costume designed High Flying Bird, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and Moses, directed by Chris Morris.

PHIL STOCKTON (Sound Editor) is a supervising sound editor who has worked on an array of feature films and documentaries for such directors as Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, John Sayles, Ang Lee and many others.

Stockton won both an Oscar® and a BAFTA (British Academy Award) for Hugo, and received Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Life of Pi. Additional BAFTA nominations include Gangs of New York and The Aviator. He has four Emmy nominations with a win for “Boardwalk Empire” and several MPSE Golden Reel Awards—most recently for Life of Pi and George Harrison: Living in the Material World.

Stockton has had the good fortune to work on more than 150 films including such classics as Raising Arizona, Goodfellas, Do the Right Thing, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Brokeback Mountain.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES and LEGENDARY PICTURES present

in association with PERFECT WORLD PICTURES

a QC ENTERTAINMENT / BLUMHOUSE production a MONKEYPAW / 40 ACRES AND A MULE FILMWORKS production

A SPIKE LEE joint

CAST
Ron Stallworth         John David Washington
Flip Zimmerman        Adam Driver
David Duke        Topher Grace
Kwame Ture        Corey Hawkins
Patrice Dumas        Laura Harrier
Walter Breachway        Ryan Eggold
Felix        Jasper Pääkkönen
Ivanhoe        Paul Walter Hauser
Connie        Ashlie Atkinson
Beauregard / Narrator        Alec Baldwin
    and   
Jerome Turner        Harry Belafonte

CREW
Directed by         Spike Lee
Written by        Charlie Wachtel
        David Rabinowitz
        Kevin Willmott
        Spike Lee
Produced by        Sean McKittrick
        Jason Blum
        Raymond Mansfield
        Jordan Peele
        Spike Lee
        Shaun Redick
Executive Producers        Edward H. Hamm Jr.
        Jeanette Volturno
        Win Rosenfeld
        Matthew A. Cherry
Director of Photography        Chayse Irvin, CSC
Production Designer        Curt Beech
Editor        Barry Alexander Brown
Original Score by        Terence Blanchard
Costumer Designer        Marci Rodgers
Based on the book
Black Klansman by        Ron Stallworth

Rated R for language