Spike Lee’s upcoming “Red Hook Summer” stirred much controversy during the Sundance Film Festival this year, and it has finally found a home over at Variance Films. The upstart film distributor has teamed up with Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks to distribute his latest effort. Starting August 10th, “Red Hook Summer” will debut in New York and then release throughout the top 30 markets in August. “Red Hook Summer” marks Lee’s return to independent cinema in quite some time following the mainstream success of 2006′s “Inside Man”.

“From my very first joint back in 1986, She’s Gotta Have It, I have been an independent filmmaker, and even today I still am,” Lee said in a statement. “I’m elated to join forces with Variance Films for the independent distribution of my new joint Red Hook Summer. We look forward to getting this film into the marketplace, where we believe 100 percent that there is a starving audience for American independent films like Red Hook Summer.”

“Variance’s sole mission is to ensure filmmakers retain their rights and their power,” said Variance founder Dylan Marchetti, “and I can’t think of a filmmaker that would make better use of both than Spike Lee. Spike is truly one of the godfathers of independent filmmaking, and Red Hook Summer is an entertaining, yet thoughtful, film that says something we think needs to be said. We couldn’t be more excited to work with Spike and his team to ensure that audiences across the country will be experiencing this fantastic film with their friends and family.”

“Red Hook Summer” focuses on Flik Royale. He hails from middle-class Atlanta and heads to Red Hook to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse, in the housing projects of Red Hook. Having never met before, things quickly get off on the wrong foot as Bishop Enoch relentlessly attempts to convert the youth into a follower of Jesus Christ. Between his grandfather’s constant preaching and the culture shock of inner-city life, the young man’s summer appears to be a total disaster–until he meets a Chazz Morningstar, a pretty girl his age, who shows Flik the brighter side of Brooklyn. Through her love and the love of his grandfather, Flik begins to realize that the world is a lot bigger, and perhaps a lot better, than he’d ever imagined.

@MRMARIN88