Crooklyn is based on a true story

If you have been a fan of Spike Lee's films or watched Spike's films, Spike Lee's joint "Crooklyn", a comedic coming-of-age tale about a family living in Brooklyn, New York. 30 years ago, Crooklyn premiered on May 13, 1994. The film stars Alfre Woodward, Delroy Lindo, and Zelda Harris.

Crooklyn is based on the life of director Spike Lee and written by his sister Joie and their younger brother Cinque. The film is set during the summer of the 1970s era at Brooklyn, New York (not to be mistaken with "Crooklyn"). In the opening, where children were seen playing in the streets including Clinton, Wendell, Joseph, Nate, and Troy (played by Carlton Williams, Sharif Rashed, Tse-Mach Washington, Chris Knowings, and Zelda Harris). Four brothers and and a sister living in at a Brooklyn townhome with their parents: Carolyn, a teacher (played by Alfre Woodard), and Woody, a struggling musician (played by Delroy Lindo). Throughout their household, the family deals with the ups and downs and everything relatable to all Black families especially mines as well which I'm not going to lie. Troy, the only sister in the and who was turning 10 years old spends her summer birthday weekend with her Aunt Song (played by Frances Foster), Uncle Klem, and their adoptive daughter Viola. Troy never wanted to live with her Aunt Song plus she never liked Aunt Song. Despite her dislike towards Song, she enjoys spending time with Viola. After her 10th birthday, their mom was hospitalized and diagnosed with cancer.

Spoiler Alert: In the near end, Carolyn dies leaving behind Woody and their children including Troy. Troy becomes the matriach of the family.

In the film, Spike Lee appears as the glue sniffer harrassing the kids from the block and Joie Lee who wrote the story of the film also appearing in the film as Aunt Maxine picking up Troy from the airport.

In Real Life "Crooklyn"

Like I said, Crooklyn is loosely based on a true story of Spike Lee's childhood.

In Real life, Spike Lee was born as Shelton Jackson Lee in Atlanta, Georgia to his parents: William "Bill" James Edward Lee III aka "Woody" and Jaqueline "Jackie" Shelton. The couple married in 1954 and had five children together: Spike, the oldest born in 1957 (Clinton), Christopher born in 1959 (Wendell), David born in 1961 (Nate), Joie born in 1962 (Troy), and Cinqué born in 1966 (Joseph). Bill was a musician who composed with famous musical artists like Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Harry Belafonte, Peter, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Billy Strayhorn, Bob Dylan, Arthea Franklin, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger and Jackie worked as an arts teacher. When he was a child, the family moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn, New York. His mother nicknamed him "Spike" during his childhood due to his "tough nature". Upon their arrival in Cobble Hill, it was a predominantly Italian neighborhood, and due to the fact that Spike Lee and his family were African Americans, they weren't given a very warm welcome. In fact, they were called "niggers," and were told that they didn't belong there. Regardless of the welcome that they received, once the family settled into the neighborhood, they weren't seen as a "threat" to anyone and had a decent childhood. They then moved to Fort Greene, Brooklyn. During the mid-70s, Jackie was diagnosed with cancer. In 1976, when Spike was 19 and Joie aka "Troy" was 14, Jackie died of cancer. After his mother's death, Bill remarried to Susan Kaplan, a Caucasian woman. During Bill's marriage with Susan, Spike drew distance from his father which would later become an inspiration for Spike's film Jungle Fever in 1991 before he filmed Crooklyn.

Spike Lee's life in Fort Greene was really what inspired his sister Joie Lee and brother Cinque Lee to give him the idea to make a movie about the time. His siblings wrote the script for Crooklyn with memories of their late childhood in mind. The starring role of Troy, the youngest child, and only girl of Spike's siblings, was based on Joie, and the fights and arguments that they had were included as well as the street games they played with each other on those hot summer days. Spike Lee's late childhood as well as his siblings inspired him to film and direct Crooklyn.

My childhood always informed my writing. The genesis of the story was a collection of stories and essays I was working on at the time — these are not published works — just personal pieces I didn’t share. I wrote about characters in our neighborhood, and a lot of it was from memory. Many years later, I had a vision for a film. I wanted to tell my story cinematically. At that time, there was a dearth of films about Black families and Black girlhood. I didn’t see myself reflected in cinema. So I wanted to tell a story about my childhood, and at that point it was called “Hot Peas & Butter.” My mother’s death was the impetus for the story. I wanted to pay tribute to her. So what happened was, I showed my work to my brother Cinque…

Joie Lee Speaks to IndieWire, MAY 28, 2024

The filming took place on location in New York, including Fort Greene Park. Before actress Zelda Harris nabbed the role as Troy, she had a small role on Sesame Street. According to Harris, she auditioned nearly nine times before she was offered the role beating hundreds of girls auditioning for the role.

I auditioned eight or nine times. I think on my first audition my mom gave me pressed hair so there was a little bit of glitz with my hair being straightened. But after the first audition — and I don’t know if somebody said something — but my father got the sense that we don’t need to be doing that, they wanted rough and tumble. When we got to the last audition, it was a bit of a kerfuffle because when we got there, nobody was there and we eventually got to where we were supposed to be. I go into the room with Spike and he said something to the effect of “I want to offer you the role of Troy in my upcoming film ‘Crooklyn.'” I was there but not there, my soul started leaving my body. Me and my dad had a celebratory box of french fries on the way home.

Zelda Harris speaks to IndieWire, May 28, 2024

Crooklyn premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival on May 12, 1994. It was released to theaters in May 1994 and debuted at number three at the box office. Critics gave Spike's film Crooklyn positive reveiws and Robert Ebert gave the film 3 in a half stars. In the 2017 "One Film, One New York" contest, New Yorkers selected the film for free, simultaneous screenings across all five New York City boroughs. 30 years later, “Crooklyn” is now considered one of Spike Lee’s very best films and a landmark portrayal of Black girlhood.

Crooklyn, to me, was a summer film classic. I loved how Spike portrayed everything relatable to my childhood and inspiring to others especially dealing with the loss of a mother.