She's Gotta Have It

She's Gotta Have It
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySpike Lee
Written bySpike Lee
Produced bySpike Lee (credited as Shelton J. Lee)
Starring
CinematographyErnest Dickerson
Edited bySpike Lee
Music byBill Lee
Production
company
Distributed byIsland Pictures
Release date
  • August 8, 1986 (1986-08-08)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$175,000
Box office$7.1 million[1]

She's Gotta Have It is a 1986 American black-and-white comedy drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Spike Lee.[2] Filmed on a small budget and Lee's first feature-length film to be released, it earned positive reviews and launched Lee's career.

The film stars Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell and Lee himself in a supporting role. Also appearing are cinematographer Ernest Dickerson as a Queens, New York, resident and, in an early appearance, S. Epatha Merkerson as a doctor. The plot concerns a young woman (Johns) who is seeing three men, and the feelings this arrangement provokes.

In 2017, Lee adapted the film into a Netflix series.

In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference mojo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Lee, Spike (1987). Spike Lee's Gotta Have It: Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-64417-3.