Spike Lee was on stage at the Cannes Lions Festival in France today where he will receive the inaugural Creative Maker of the Year Award tonight.
During his speech, he reflected on his long career and has revealed the piece of advice he received from Michael Jackson that influenced his incredibly diverse work.
“It’s a combination of the commercials, the feature films, the documentaries, not music videos but short films.” The latter is how Lee chooses to describe his work with artists including Jackson, Prince, Miles Davis and Public Enemy, following a tip he received from Jackson.
He added that it was Michael who first suggested he use the right language to describe his portfolio. Lee remembered: “Michael Jackson said to me, ‘Don’t ever use the term ‘music video’.”
