Filmmaker Spike Lee signs autographs, including a Knicks hat, at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael ahead of a tribute to him at the Mill Valley Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Tommy Lau/Mill Valley Film Festival
It might surprise even longtime fans, but Spike Lee — the ultimate New York filmmaker — once shot a movie entirely in San Francisco. It’s so obscure, Lee couldn’t remember the title.
“There’s a thing I did,” Lee told the Chronicle, his voice trailing off before turning to people gathered around him at a reception space during the 48th Mill Valley Film Festival at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.
“Who has the IMDF?” he said.
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“You mean IMDb?” said a helpful festivalgoer, who pulled out her smartphone to look up Lee’s filmography on the Internet Movie Database.
Filmmaker Spike Lee, right, and actor Delroy Lindo are in conversation during a Mill Valley Film Festival tribute to Lee at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Tommy Lau/Mill Valley Film Festival
After a group effort, the title was discovered to be “Sucker Free City” (2004), a crime drama starring a young Anthony Mackie (“Captain America: Brave New World”) about conflicts among white, Black, Latino and Asian street gangs in San Francisco. Originally shot as the pilot for a Showtime series that was never picked up, it was re-edited into a movie for the premium channel.
“Yes! There you go!” Lee exclaimed. “We shot it near the old Navy yard (Hunter’s Point).”
Lee was in gregarious form at the Smith Rafael on Saturday, Oct. 11, where he was celebrated as the recipient of the festival’s highest honor, the MVFF Tribute Award. The 75-minute event consisted of film clips and an onstage conversation between Lee and Bay Area actor Delroy Lindo (“Sinners”), who has starred in four of Lee’s films, including “Malcolm X” (1992) and “Da 5 Bloods” (2020).
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Lindo, who spent his teenage years in San Francisco, went to San Francisco State University and owns homes in Oakland and New York, flew in from the East Coast especially for the fete.
Filmmaker Spike Lee at a reception following a Mill Valley Film Festival tribute at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Tommy Lau/Mill Valley Film Festival
“He’s been not only important to me personally, but his impact in the industry is gargantuan,” Lindo told the Chronicle at the reception, noting Lee gave Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez their first big break in 1989’s “Do the Right Thing.”
“I had worked prior to working on ‘Malcolm X,’ but that was the first significant piece of film work that I did,” he added. “It was a sea change for me, so I speak from a personal experience. But I also speak from the point of view of somebody who recognizes his widespread influence.”
The evening was filled with laughter and nostalgia — and sports references. Lee and Lindo were given two microphones, one with an orange foam covering, the other with green. Lee got the green one — the team color of the hated Boston Celtics. His New York Knicks have orange colors, so he grabbed the other mic instead.
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“Green gotta go!” Lee exclaimed.
Filmmaker Spike Lee, right, and actor Delroy Lindo are in conversation during a Mill Valley Film Festival tribute to Lee at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Tommy Lau/Mill Valley Film Festival
The filmmaker also, in a playful jab at fans of Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, reiterated that the NBA’s GOAT (Greatest of All Time) is still Michael Jordan, with whom he starred in a memorable series of Nike commercials as Mars Blackmon, Lee’s character in his debut feature, “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986).
“I’m not getting any debate here about who’s better,” Lee said as the audience laughed. “One of the best moves I made was that Mars wore Air Jordans. My biggest regret was that I didn’t buy stock in Nike.”
Lee went on to marvel at the fact that “She’s Gotta Have It” will soon celebrate its 40th anniversary. The film, shot in black and white for $175,000 and during a time when there were few Black filmmakers working in Hollywood, made him an unlikely sensation.
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Filmmaker Spike Lee, right, and actor Delroy Lindo are in conversation during a Mill Valley Film Festival tribute to Lee at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025.
Tommy Lau/Mill Valley Film Festival
From there he would go on to direct many films now acknowledged as classics, from the aforementioned “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X” to “25th Hour” (2002) and “BlacKkKlansman” (2018). His latest, “Highest 2 Lowest,” which he screened Friday, Oct. 10, for an invitation-only crowd at ILM’s Premier Theater in San Francisco, is now streaming on Apple TV+.
But Saturday he was humbled by how chance and fate have played throughout his life, recalling that he might not have become a filmmaker had not a neighbor gifted him a Super 8 film camera.
“I say my prayers and blessings when I go to bed every night because it could have gone this way or that way,” Lee said, gesturing with his left and right legs. “It wasn’t a straight path, and if I did not go see (my neighbor) that day, I would not be here. You would never have heard Spike Lee.
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“And I think about it, man. It’s like sometimes, I don’t want to think about it because it’s scary. But there is a God. There is something — I don’t care what religion it is — there’s stuff you have no control over.”