News

Spike Lee to Make Sundance Debut

Director Spike Lee will make his Sundance Festival debut with the musical Passing Strange. Lee's debut at the festival comes 20 years after his big screen debut, She's Gotta Have It, and occurs during the festival's 25th anniversary.

Passing Strange is a film version of the stage musical launched by Los Angeles-based indie rockers Stew and Heidi Rodewald. The musical began at New York's nonprofit Public Theater before graduating to Broadway last February. It follows Stew's roots in punk rock in Los Angeles and his travels to Eastern Europe where he lived as an artist in Amsterdam and West Berlin, ran for 165 performances, and nabbed a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical before closing in July.

Lee saw the musical several times at the Public Theater and took in a few showings on Broadway before being approached to film it. The film will premiere in the non-competitive Spectrum Documentary Spotlight program between January 15 and 25. Lee hopes the film will find a distributor through its Sundance premiere.

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
12.11.08