Recently I pared down my home library significantly (a painful but crucial ritual for any bibliophile). One book that made the cut surprised some of my friends: Spike Lee’s Gotta Have It: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking, the memoir/journal published by Spike Lee upon the release of his first film. (Sadly, it is now out of publication.) I was surprised they were surprised. Anyone interested in real independent cinema and the culture of resistance should consider this book a must-read.

What makes Lee’s book even more precious is the lamentable dearth of strong helmer memoirs. On one level, this makes sense because directors’ best efforts usually are reserved for the big screen. Yet most possess a unique, increasingly necessary perspective on the balance of commerce, art, and, yes, passion. (Not even a Marvel movie can get made without a powerful personal commitment.) Not everyone may be dying to learn the backstory of, say, Michael Bay, but an account of the fortitude required to make a four-hour, big studio-financed film about warring factions of the American Communist Party, as Warren Beatty did with “Reds,” sounds like a terrific self-help book and war story all in one. The irony, of course, is that the notoriously taciturn Beatty would probably write a terrible memoir – his wanton bachelor days required a cone of silence – but directors tend to be wonderfully colorful when they do talk out of school. Here are four memoirs I’d gladly keep in my personal library. Continue Reading →