My Brother's Wedding

Filmmaker Charles Burnett in person! Director’s cut!
Introduction by Jacqueline Stewart, co-curator of L.A. Rebellion at UCLA.

Following a troubled production, Charles Burnett's follow-up to Killer of Sheep premiered in 1984 in a 115-minute rough-cut version that was not released theatrically until 1991; more than a decade later, Burnett cut 30 minutes from the film for its 2007 re-release to create this director's cut version that more accurately reflects his original intentions. Recently laid off from his factory job, Pierce Mundy (Everette Silas) marks time working at his family's dry-cleaning business under the watchful eye of his mother (Jessie Holmes) while swapping loaded jabs with his brother's upper-middle-class fiancée (Gaye Shannon-Burnett). In the face of a diminished future, the return of Pierce's best friend, Soldier (Ronald E. Bell), offers a nostalgic escape to childhood, albeit one burdened by the decimation of the friends' generation through violence and incarceration.

"Burnett's acute handling of actors (most of whom are nonprofessionals) never falters, and his gifts as a storyteller make this a movie that steadily grows in impact and resonance as one watches. If a better film has been made about black ghetto life, I haven't seen it." (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader)
(Charles Burnett, 1983/2007, video, 82 min)

Preceded by
A Little Off Mark
Nice guys finish last in Robert Wheaton's flavorful short about a shy guy who tries all the wrong moves to meet the right girl.
(Robert Wheaton, 1986, digibeta, 9 min)

Sponsors
Presented in association with UCLA Film & Television Archive and supported in part by grants from the Getty Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The series is curated by Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, Shannon Kelley and Jacqueline Stewart. Complete details on UCLA’s L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema initiative here.

University of Chicago Arts Council, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Tom Gunning/Mellon Fund, UC Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, Logan Center for the Arts, Conversations at the Edge, Block Cinema, Black Cinema House.