Controversial film maker Spike Lee, noted for last summer's movie Do the Right Thing and for raising national awareness of racial issues, will visit the University next month.

The University's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is bringing Lee here to speak at its third annual Achievement Awards Banquet, said president Elizabeth Walker. The banquet will be held at 5 p.m. April 8 at the at the days Inn, 240 S. Pugh St.

The theme for this year's banquet is "Striving for Excellence," which makes Lee an appropriate choice, Walker said.

"He has achieved so much and he's looking to give back to the African-American community and that's very commendable," she said, noting that he has broken through the barriers of being a young, black film maker to become successful.

Lee will give an additional speech before the banquet, but details have not been worked out, she said.

Lee's latest film, Do the Right Thing, was the focus of controversy last summer because some felt it was a call to racial violence. The film depicts the buildup and eruption of racial tension in a culturally mixed New York City neighborhood.

The film, highly acclaimed by critics across the country, received two Academy Award nominations. Danny Aiello was nominated for best supporting actor and Lee received a nomination for best original screenplay.

However, many critics were surprised that Lee was not nominated for best director. Even more surprising to some, Do the Right Thing was not nominated for best picture.

Lee first feature film, She's Gotta Have It, dealt with black male-female relationships. School Daze, his second film, portrayed interracial problems within the black community.

Lee's portrayal of issues that most Americans are not used to facing in mainstream movies has contributed to his controversial image, said film professor Bill Uricchio.

While most established directors make movies to "entertain but not necessarily to awaken," Lee avoids easy answers and uses common film techniques in provoking ways, Uricchio said.

Lee's films force people to think about hard issues, such as racism still being pervasive in American culture, he said.

"Spike Lee is touching exactly on a sort of nerve in the country right now," Uricchio said. "He's an articulator of a much more diffused and repressed social tension."