2008-03-27

Soledad Hosts Behind the Lens Event for Spike Lee


Soledad O'Brien hosted an event yesterday for Spike Lee who was named the Chrysler LLC 2008 Behind the Lens honoree in Los Angeles.

Soledad worked with Spike Lee in 2007 on his documentary, "Children of the Storm" which chronicles the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of children who were living in the New Orleans area. For the series, Soledad and director Lee distributed video cameras to 11 children from diverse backgrounds and instructed them to document their everyday lives.
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"We wanted to really represent the diversity that is in New Orleans - geographic diversity, gender diversity, racial diversity, an experiential diversity," Soledad said.

Spike Lee is an influential figure in contemporary cinema. As a director, producer, screenwriter, author and educator, he is to be recognized for his outstanding achievements in film and television at the sixth annual award ceremony.

In recognition of Lee's accomplishments, the Chrysler Foundation will donate $25,000 to Lee's alma mater, Morehouse College in Atlanta. The donation will benefit the vision of the Morehouse College School of Sports Journalism, a program created to expand the field of sports journalism from the small percentage of African Americans currently working in it today.

The program, which began with seed money donated by Lee, launched its first course offerings in January 2007. A graduate of Morehouse, class of 1979, Lee is a third-generation Morehouse graduate and now serves on the school's Board of Trustees. To date, his efforts have raised more than $1 million to benefit the program.

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