Spike Lee and Kyle Bell, Rolex Mentor and Protégé in Film, 2020–2022

Spike Lee, one of today’s most socially conscious filmmakers, chose to mentor Kyle Bell, a young filmmaker from the Thlopthlocco Creek Tribal Town of Oklahoma, to help expand the boundaries of his evocative filmmaking. Lee notes how the experience of Native Americans is similar to that of Africans transported as slaves to the US, and Bell’s story and film work moved Lee to choose him as his protégé in the 2020−2022 cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. During the mentoring period, Bell watched Lee make a documentary and spent time with him in the editing room. For the protégé, the greatest lesson was the mentor encouraging him to find and follow his voice in telling the stories of his people. “He has helped me be vocal about my vision and lead other people along the way,” says Bell, whose ultimate goal is to expand from documentaries and enter into the more narrative world that Lee is part of. Discover more https://on.rolex.org/film Established in 2002, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative exemplifies the company's pursuit of excellence, symbolized by the word “Perpetual”. The programme was established to aid in the transmission of artistic knowledge and craft from one generation to the next. #Rolex #RolexMentorProtege #Perpetual