Four African American vets battle the forces of man and nature when they return to Vietnam in Director Spike Lee’s drama, Da 5 Bloods.
Lee’s film unveils the story of four Vets searching for the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of a fortune in buried treasure. They battle forces both external and internal while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.
In a DGA Virtual Q&A Program Event on January 16, Lee discussed the making of Da 5 Bloods in an online conversation moderated by Director Kevin Willmott (The 24th).
During the conversation Lee touched on having faith that his audiences would be able to see beyond the lack of a large CGI budget for the film. “I believe in the intelligence of the audience, and there would be a slight moment where they’d be jarred, but they would understand.”
In addition to Da 5 Bloods, Lee has more than 80 directorial credits including the feature films Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, Miracle at St. Anna; the feature documentary 4 Little Girls; the documentary mini-series If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise; the pilot episode of the series Shark; and episodes of the series She’s Gotta Have It, based on his feature film of the same name. His 2018 feature, BlacKkKlansman, earned Lee a DGA Award nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film. He also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for his 2006 documentary mini-series, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Considered one of the most influential filmmakers in contemporary cinema, Lee was awarded with the DGA Honors in 2002.
Lee has been a member of the Guild since 1997.
You can listen to Lee's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.