I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Lee twice. Our first brief encounter was in Ikea. I was working that day, I decided to leave my department to walk to the other side of the store after I heard Mr. Lee was in the building. So I strolled over there to catch a glimpse of him. When I arrived in the living room department there he was with I believe two other people. They wanted a nice chair for a set I believe. He's short and polite. I walked by him, nodded at him and he looked at me and said something like 'What's up'. That moment was cool. I didn't have my business card made at that time...plus I don't like to be a pest towards famous people.
The second encounter was even better. This time it was in Barnes and Noble in NYC. Mr. Lee was celebrating the anniversary of 'Do the Right Thing'. So the DVD was being sold. But what I had in my hand I think was better and that was his Autobiography he wrote along with Kaleem Aftab, it's entitled 'That's my Story and I'm Sticking to It'. It's an inspiring, provoking, intriguing book-much like his movies-and it gives such private insight to what makes Mr. Lee who he is today. He talks about his wife and kids, how he first met his wife, the pressures he went through making Malcolm X, and the determination he had at such a young age to be a filmmaker and many other things. So there in Barnes and Noble he talked to us in the room those of us that was let in on a first come first serve bases. When he walked in the room you notice a certain aura, confident presence entering in. He was funny, calm, focus, but you could feel a nice energy in the room. This event happened not to long after Michael Jackson's death so they played MJ's songs as he signed books, dvd's, etc...
So I got on line to get his autobiography signed for me. When I finally got to him I reminded him of the brief encounter in Ikea we had, thought I would give it a shot, but he didn't remember-which is understandable because this was about a few years back. So he signs my copy of his book and I tell him that I'm a independent film director and writer and I tell him I'm making movies and he says to me ethusiastically 'Do it!' It was few words but encouraging, he was just telling me to just keep going at it and don't stop, and just do it. To be a movie director you have to just do it; write a script, grab a camera and shoot the movie.
Thanks Mr. Lee! Now I feel like reading the book again. :-)
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