Movies That Made Us: She’s Gotta Have It

At the end of the 1980′s, a bit of a Black arts renaissance took place. This time, though, the center wasn’t Harlem — it was Brooklyn. To this day, you can see the effects of the impact of this revolution. If you weren’t from Brooklyn in the late 80′s, for 88 minutes in 1986, you wished you were. Or at least, you felt like you had friends there.

Those friends include Nola Darling (portrayed by Tracy Camilla Johns), a young, attractive, sexually-independent Brooklynite who juggles three suitors: the polite and well-meaning Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks); the self-obsessed model Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell); and the immature, motor-mouthed bicycle messenger Mars Blackmon (Lee). Nola is attracted to the best in each of them, but refuses to commit to any of them, cherishing her personal freedom instead, even though each man wants her for himself.

“She’s Gotta Have It” changed a lot of things. Not only did we see an independent single woman in a nice neighborhood (though….furniture did seem to be an issue) but independent artists saw that you could tell a story in a stylish fashion for a small budget. “She’s Gotta Have It” was made for $175,000, and, as the legend goes, some of that was on credit cards. But some of it was also raised from fellow Brooklynites, like then music critic and author Nelson George. This movie was guerrilla filmmaking at its best – both romantic and raw, ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ was as much hip hop as it was jazz, a wonderful flow of images, sounds, attitude, and fashion.

In the years that followed the release of this film, Spike almost single-handedly brought a pride to being Black in Brooklyn that still exists. Those of us who were there remember picking up our t-shirts and 40 Acres gear at the store “Status” before “Spike’s Joint” opened, which brought people from all around the world to get authentic gear from the movies. Brooklynites really felt a sense of ownership in 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks.

The back of a SGHI T-Shirt

This film also has one of the most in-demand movie soundtracks in the world. A perfectly sequenced set of music, the “She’s Gotta Have It” Soundtrack has been out of print for years. It was originally released on Island Records, which would sorta make it a Def Jam record now. SURE would be nice to see this reissued…

Here’s an example of the perfection of the soundtrack/score and one of the scenes that makes you long for quiet walks in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.