The Emory Cinematheque Presents: Girl 6

The Emory Cinematheque Presents: Girl 6 October 21 at 7:30 p.m. in White Hall 208 1996 | Run Time: 108 min | 35mm Directed by Spike Lee Introduced by Dr. Stephane Dunn: https://morehouse.edu/directory/stephane-dunn/ (Morehouse College) Print provided by Yale Film Archive.

Girl 6 is Spike Lee’s eighth commercial film and the third where he centers a woman as the main protagonist. Made in 1996, it is based on a play by African-American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks. It examines the phone sex business (as a parody of Hollywood) and one Black woman’s dreams against her negotiation of that industry. Essence gushes about Theresa Randle who stars as girl 6 saying, “Randle possesses the chameleonlike ability to be every woman you've ever known and one you've never met before.” Even cultural critic bell hooks, known for getting in Lee’s a** about his work, says: “I find Girl 6 to be a movie that not only challenges Hollywood but is a critical read on Hollywood.”

In a surrealist tone, the film attempts to deconstruct the lucrative but under-explored entertainment world of phone sex. Beautifully shot by DP Malik Hassan Sayeed, the film visually paints a psychology of the phone sex industry from the perspective of its beautiful workers. Prince writes and produces the entire soundtrack, making the “combination of the film's seductive content and old school Prince tunes, long known to have maintained a kinky edge… a perfect match” (Call & Post).

Beyond Randle as ‘Judy’ (Girl 6), the film stars Isaiah Washington, Jenifer Lewis, Debi Mezar, and Spike himself along with cameo appearances by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, actors Ron Silver and Halle Berry, model Naomi Campbell, and singer Madonna.

Film scholar and maker Dr. Stephane Dunn, Morehouse College chair of the Cinema, Television, and Emerging Media Studies Department and author of Baad Bitches & Sassy Supermamas, will introduce the film and lead the Q & A.