--- title: Every Time You Watch a Movie on Your Phone You Break Spike Lee's Heart description: “I know I’m a dinosaur” canonical: https://time.com/3843066/spike-lee-digital/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-01T11:52:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:51:11.400Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: When You Watch Movies on Phones, You Break Spike Lee's Heart og:description: “I know I’m a dinosaur” og:url: https://time.com/3843066/spike-lee-digital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13c99213d9feb86/6987ede6e53aba5bce4dba00/spike-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Variety's Entertainment And Technology Summit NYC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: When You Watch Movies on Phones, You Break Spike Lee's Heart twitter:description: “I know I’m a dinosaur” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13c99213d9feb86/6987ede6e53aba5bce4dba00/spike-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Every Time You Watch a Movie on Your Phone, You Break Spike Lee's Heart by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 1, 2015 11:52 AM CUT  Filmmaker Spike Lee speaks onstage at Variety's Entertainment and Technology Summit NYC at Le Parker Meridien on April 30, 2015 in New York City. Filmmaker Spike Lee speaks onstage at Variety's Entertainment and Technology Summit NYC at Le Parker Meridien on April 30, 2015 in New York City.Mike Coppola—Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 1, 2015 11:52 AM CUT Spike Lee would really prefer you to not watch his movies (or any movies) on your phone. The director said at _Variety’s_ Entertainment and Technology conference in New York that he knows he’s “a dinosaur,” but, as a filmmaker, “we kill ourselves with editing. With lighting. With sound.” That people experience movies on tiny screens where none of this can shine through is “heartbreaking” to Lee. So do Spike a favor and get yourself to a real, live, old-fashioned movie theater this weekend. \[[_The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/01/spike-lee-watching-movies-digitally-is-heartbreaking "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3843066/spike-lee-digital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3843066/spike-lee-digital/"},"headline":"Every Time You Watch a Movie on Your Phone, You Break Spike Lee's Heart","datePublished":"2015-05-01T11:52:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:51:11.400Z","description":"“I know I’m a dinosaur”","url":"https://time.com/3843066/spike-lee-digital/","keywords":["movies","digital","Spike Lee"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13c99213d9feb86/6987ede6e53aba5bce4dba00/spike-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf13c99213d9feb86/6987ede6e53aba5bce4dba00/spike-lee.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Variety's Entertainment And Technology Summit NYC","caption":"Variety's Entertainment And Technology Summit NYC","creditText":"Mike Coppola—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3843066/spike-lee-digital/","name":"Every Time You Watch a Movie on Your Phone, You Break Spike Lee's Heart"}}]}] ```