Pics from Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer Premiere

Pics from Red Hook Summer Premiere
Posted by Wilson Morales

August 7, 2012

Last night in New York, Spike Lee premiered the latest film in his “Chronicles of Brooklyn” series RED HOOK SUMMER. Hundreds came out to support the iconic writer/director including Mike Tyson, Gayle King, Laila Ali, Debra Lee, Stephen Hill, Mona Scott-Young, Romany Malco, Jamie Hector, Toure, Nelson George, Ilyasah Shabazz and many more.

The cast – Clarke Peters, Nate Parker, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Jules Brown,Toni Lysaith, Heather Alicia Simms, James Ransone and more — was all smiles throughout the evening, which ended at a festive after-party at Frank’s Lounge in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn.

RED HOOK SUMMER is the story of an Atlanta boy named young Flik who comes to Red Hook for the first time to spend the summer with his grandfather, Enoch, a minister. They have never met.  Enoch is a devout minister who tries to get his grandson son to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Young Flik refuses. He grew up in middle class Atlanta, far from the difficulties of New York life. He does not believe in God. He thinks his summer in Red Hook is a punishment meted out by his single mother.  He feels doomed to spend the summer doing repairs on the dilapidated church of grandfather, a hard working furnace fireman for The New York City Housing Authority.

The boy sees The Red Hook Projects as a foreign country, filled with weird characters, unlike the sunny, well-to-do Black Folks he knows back home. At home they drive cars, have swimming pools in their yards, multiple TV sets, computers at home, good schools, and all the things a kid needs. In Red Hook it’s hot, there’s nothing to do, too many people speak Spanish, he has no friends. His summer appears to be a total disaster until he meets a pretty Black girl his age. Chazz’s a Red Hook resident and also a member of his grandfather’s church. The young girl shows this boy the wonderful aspects of Red Hook and Brooklyn life. Through her love, and the love of his grandfather, the boy realizes that there is indeed a God, and Red Hook is the Window to His Love..

The film opens August 10 in New York City and wider on August 24. Visit www.redhooksummer.com for more information.

Pics provided by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images and Malinda Bell, Christian Fernandez