Uplift the Race: The Construction of School Daze

Lee, the writer-producer-director who took the movie industry by surprise with his highly successful 1986 independent film She's Gotta Have It, returns to the screen this month with his bigger-budgeted School Daze, filmed on location. In the movie, Lee draws on his experience as a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1975 to 1979, stating that the action ""takes places at a fictitious, predominantly Black College in the South. The student body is divided into two factions: The Haves and the Have-Nots. This division is based upon class and color.'' Scripts are like ``blueprints,'' he writes, and, with that in mind, he presents his screenplay with a code indicating scenes never shot and those deleted during editing. He includes reminiscences and statements by others connected with the production and a section on his career in the music-video field. The result is a hefty package of inside info and filmmaking know-how that should fascinate industry professionals as well as film students and fans. (February)