NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Chairman Bonnie Hammer today announced the latest addition to the Characters Unite Film Series, designed to increase awareness of social injustice and encourage greater progress. Tonight, November 1 at 7/6c, usa network will air "Do The Right Thing," a SPIKE Lee film, that sparked a national dialogue more than two decades ago about racial tension in America and which still remains relevant today. The limited commercial event to commemorate the film's 25-year anniversary will also feature a new, personal introduction by the film's lead actress Rosie Perez.
"'Do the Right Thing' is one of those rare films that's as provocative cinematically as it is socially," said Ms. Hammer. "Spike Lee brilliantly applies his innovative visual and storytelling techniques to an exploration of race relations as resonant today as it was twenty-five years ago." Released in 1989, "Do The Right Thing," tells the story of a neighborhood's simmering racial tension, all of which comes to a tragic conclusion on the hottest day of the summer in Brooklyn. Nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Danny Aiello, the film was deemed culturally significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, one of just five films to have this honor in their first year of eligibility. "Do The Right Thing" is the seventh film in the successful Characters Unite Film Series, which launched in April 2012 with "To Kill a Mockingbird," featuring an introduction by President Barack Obama. Additional films in the series have included "The Color Purple," with an introduction by the film's Oscar-winning star Whoopi Goldberg, "Milk," with an introduction by Emmy® Award-winner and activist Neil Patrick Harris, "Schindler's List," featuring an introduction by the film's director Steven Spielberg, "In The Heat of the Night," with an introduction by the film's music composer Quincy Jones and "Philadelphia," featuring an introduction by President Bill Clinton.
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