<I>Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads </I>
date: label: Date
content: 1983
name: label: Directed by
content: Spike Lee, American, born 1957
label: Written by
content: Spike Lee, American, born 1957
label: Produced by
content: Spike Lee, American, born 1957
label: Composed by
content: Bill Lee, American, born 1928
label: Subject of
content: Monty Ross, American, born 1957
label: Subject of
content: Tommy Redmond Hicks, born 1962
label: Subject of
content: Donna Bailey
label: Subject of
content: Stuart Smith
label: Subject of
content: Horace Long
label: Owned by
content: D.C. Public Library, American, founded 1896
notes: label: Caption
content: This film was a part of the Washington D.C. Public Library's circulating 16mm film collection housed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Central Library. The collection is particularly noted for the wide variety of African American and African diaspora content.
label: Description
content: An independent film with the title Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. It consists of a single reel of color 16mm acetate film with optical sound. The film, which is famed director Spike Lee's first feature film, was submitted as his thesis while attending New York University's filmmaking master's program, and features a musical score composed by his father, Bill Lee. It tells the story of a barbershop owner who must decide whether to make a deal with a local gangster in order to keep his shop open.
label: Description
content: When Joe (Horace Long), a barbershop owner and numbers game racketeer, robs local gangster Nicholas Lovejoy (Tommy Redmond Hicks), he is tied to cinderblocks and thrown into Manhattan's East River. The barbershop's manager, Zach Homer (Monty Ross) inherits Joe's barbershop after the homicide. However, he struggles to retain customers with the cessation of the illegal numbers game. Concurrently, Ruth (Donna Bailey), Zach's wife, introduces Teapot (Stuart Smith), a local delinquent youth, to her husband and advocates for Homer to employ him in the barbershop.
label: Description
content: Later in the film, Mr. Lovejoy's gangsters kidnap and assault Homer while Lovejoy himself coerces him to use the barbershop as a point of sale for the numbers game. At home, Ruth inquiries about Homer's wounds and implores him to diversify the hairstyles he offers at the barbershop or move with her to Atlanta, to which Homer replies that he will do neither. Later that evening, Lovejoy appears at the Homers' residence unannounced and, once again, implores Homer to join the numbers game. After Homer reinstates the numbers game, customers return to the barbershop and business begins booming once again. However, this entrepreneurial success is short lived as Homer, like his predecessor, robs Mr. Lovejoy and attempts to flee with his wife to Atlanta.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Bedford-Stuyvesant, New York City, Kings County, New York, United States, North and Central America
label: Place made
content: United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Barbershops
label: Topic
content: Business
label: Topic
content: Communities
label: Topic
content: Film
label: Topic
content: Independent films
label: Topic
content: Urban life
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: DC Public Library Film Collection
label: Classification
content: Time-based Media - Moving Images
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Transferred from the DC Public Library
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2017.55.22.1a
objectType: label: Type
content: sound films
label: Type
content: color films (visual works)
label: Type
content: feature films
label: Type
content: 16mm (photographic film size)
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Spike Lee
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acetate film
label: Dimensions
content: Duration: 53 Minutes
label: Dimensions
content: Length (Film): 1900 Feet