Spike Lee’s ‘Jim Brown: All-American’ to premiere at Syracuse University

Spike Lee’s ‘Jim Brown: All-American’to premiere at Syracuse UniversityOctober 01, 2002Mark Owczarskimaowczar@syr.edu

Hall of Fame running back, community activist and Syracuse University alumnus Jim Brown and noted filmmaker Spike Lee will be on the Syracuse University campus Sunday, Oct. 6, to attend the premiere of “Jim Brown: All-American.”

The film, a 130-minute HBO Sports Documentary, will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium. Immediately following the film, Brown and Lee will host a question-and-answer session.

“Jim Brown: All-American” is a moving portrait of a complicated, charismatic man. Brown has spent his life in the spotlight, first making football history as one of the 20th century’s greatest athletes, and later as the star of numerous Hollywood features, where he pioneered a new kind of African American hero. To make the film, Lee traveled from St. Simons’ Island, Georgia, where Brown was born and lived as a small child, to the playing fields of white, middle-class Manhasset (Long Island) High School, to Syracuse University and points beyond.

The film features interviews with teammates, friends, family, co-stars-both admirers and detractors-who paint a picture of a determined man of many talents. Brown’s commitment to the black community as founder of the Amer-I-Can program, which encourages young people to live productive lives, is focused upon, along with his well-publicized problems with women.

Tickets to the premiere are $10, $5 for students with an SU I.D., and are available at the Schine Student Center Box Office (443-4517). Box office hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 9 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.