Highlights - CHAYSE IRVIN - Cinematographer of Spike Lee’s "BlacKkKlansman", “Blonde” starring Ana de Armas, “Beyonce: Lemonade”, Kahlil Joseph, The Weekend, Netflix, Charlotte Rampling

“Spike Lee is an auteur. He is expressing his sentiment and his culture and the things that he's learned in his life through his craft. Filming BlacKkKlansmen was a really confusing period for me because I felt very connected to Spike, and I just moved to New York at the time, and what a welcoming hand. You know, the King of Brooklyn sort of being like, 'Welcome to New York!' and I'd just moved there, so it was like such a gift. When I reflect on the material, to be honest with you, the reason that I took the film was actually much more about a need to feel connected to my father. And when I read the part of the script where the guys in the KKK blow up in a car bomb, I just saw my dad laughing in my mind and sitting in the theater laughing because he would've found that so funny and ironic. And that's why I took the film, it was so I could give him that gift of laughter because I found meaning in that. And the challenges in the pre-production period, Spike has its way of working and it's sort of fun and it's not as serious. It's like things just made sense to him in a way that with other directors I've worked with, not so much. And then Spike has his office at 40 acres. He puts in work down there. Other times he's like on CNN or he's hosting a party with his family, or he is at the Nicks or Yankees game. Like he has sort of this other life. And he's also a persona. So even just walking around with him, he's like one of the most recognizable figures in America.”