Charles Burnett: The Power to Endure
April 6–25, 2011 The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
www.moma.org
New York, March 10, 2011—The Museum of Modern Art presents a major retrospective of Charles Burnett, the American filmmaker who throughout three decades has chronicled the African American experience in over a dozen feature films and numerous shorts. Barnett’s films have featured such prominent actors as Danny Glover, Beau Bridges, Halle Berry, Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee. Charles Burnett: The Power to Endure, running April 6 through 25, 2011, in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, is a comprehensive overview of the filmmaker’s career, including feature films, student shorts, and made-for-television movies, all of which explore some aspect of the Black experience in America. Burnett, who is among the finest under-recognized American filmmakers, has created films that deal with the particularly American problem of racism, from its roots in slavery through the Civil Rights movement and beyond. Burnett will be present on April 6 through 8 to introduce his films, including the opening night screening of Killer of Sheep (1977), his first feature film, which examines the Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s. Charles Burnett is organized by Charles Silver, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art; and Robert Kapsis, Professor, Department of Sociology and Film Studies, Queens College (CUNY).
Included in this comprehensive retrospective are such noteworthy works as the dark comedy The Annihilation of Fish (1999); Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007), an epic widescreen chronicle of the rise of South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) leader Sam Nujoma; The Glass Shield (1994), Burnett’s first studio-produced feature film; To Sleep with Anger (2007), an examination of the dynamics of families; and Selma, Lord, Selma (1999), a Disney television-movie tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights movement.
Born in 1944 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Burnett has lived in Los Angeles since his childhood, and much of his work confronts the often-tumultuous experiences of African American urban males. Of particular note are such early works as Killer of Sheep (1977), his harsh Neorealist portrait of Los Angeles ghetto life, and My Brother’s Wedding (1983), a tragic family comedy that remained without a theatrical release until 1991. He has revisited his Southern roots in films like Warming by the Devil’s Fire (2003), an autobiographical take on the history of the Blues. Burnett has very movingly explored the slave experience in America in television movies such as Nightjohn (1996), Disney’s recreation of plantation life during slavery, and Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003), which offers different views on the leader of the 1831 slave rebellion. Although his films are often gritty and painful, Burnett has maintained a steadfast hopefulness in the best traditions of humanism.
Screening Schedule
Charles Burnett: The Power to Endure
April 6-25, 2011
Wednesday, April 6
7:00 Killer of Sheep. 1977. USA. Directed, produced, written, photographed, and edited by Burnett. With Henry Gayle Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Eugene Cherry. Burnett’s first feature is a harsh Neorealist portrait of Los Angeles ghetto life, vitalized by the kind of humanism that the director valued in the films of Jean Renoir. Hampered by his inability to secure music rights, Burnett finally saw the film go into general release 30 years after its completion. 80 min.
Thursday, April 7
4:30 My Brother’s Wedding. 1983 (director’s cut, 2007). USA. Produced and photographed by Charles Burnett. With Everett Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon- Burnett. This very funny film, which highlights the director’s ironic take on family life, is shot in a straightforward style with naturalistic performances reminiscent of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. Financed in part by German television, it remained without a theatrical release until 1991, and a version approximating the director’s intentions had to wait until 2007. 81 min.
8:00 To Sleep With Anger. 1990. USA. Directed by Burnett. With Danny Glover, Paul Butler, Mary Alice, Carl Lumbly, Vonetta McGee, Richard Brooks. Burnett continues his dissection of families with a vengeance. His acknowledgment of African American mythology is laced with rich humor and transitions that recall the films of Yasujiro Ozu. Hailed as a masterpiece by numerous critics, the film features a brilliant performance by Glover. 102 min.
Friday, April 8
4:30 The Glass Shield. 1994. USA. Directed by Burnett. With Michael Boatman, Lori Petty, Ice Cube, Elliott Gould. Burnett’s first major studio venture—it was released by Miramax—is a provocative and suspenseful commentary on the efforts of a young black officer to be integrated into the all-white Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. In the process, his own values are sorely tested, and most of the police come up short on any scale of justice. 115 min.
8:00 The Annihilation of Fish. 1999. USA. Directed by Burnett. With James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave, Margot Kidder. This bizarre comedy pairs the legendary Jones with Lynn Redgrave (the late younger sister of Vanessa Redgrave, with whom Jones is currently appearing on Broadway). The film includes a trademark Burnett wedding scene—this time with an invisible groom—and Kidder seems to channel Beulah Bondi’s performance from Jean Renoir’s The Southerner, one of Burnett’s favorite films. 108 min.
Saturday, April 9
2:00 My Brother’s Wedding. (See Thursday, April 7, 4:30).
5:00 Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation. 2007. Namibia. Produced by the Namibia Film Commission and the Pan Afrikan Center of Namibia. With Carl Lumbly, Danny Glover. This widescreen epic chronicles the rise of Sam Nujoma (Lumbly) to the head of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) in the fight to end the South African occupation of Namibia, and his subsequent election as the first president of the independent country. This David Lean–esque epic, beautifully photographed on location, showed that Burnett could translate his values and obsessions to a much broader canvas when given the opportunity. In English, several other languages; English subtitles. 161 min.
Sunday, April 10
5:30 The Final Insult. 1997. USA. Directed by Burnett. With Ayuko Babu, Charles Bracy. This video work intermingles fiction with actuality in a poignant confrontation with homelessness. 70 min.
Wednesday, April 13
4:30 Killer of Sheep (See Wednesday, April 6, 7:00).
Thursday, April 14
4:30 The Annihilation of Fish (See Friday, April 8, 4:30). 8:00 Bless Their Little Hearts. 1984. USA. 1984. Directed by Billy Woodberry. Written and photographed by Charles Burnett. With Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore, Angela Burnett, Ronald Burnett, Kimberly Burnett. Reminiscent of Killer of Sheep, this Burnett-Woodberry collaboration is a low-key portrait of enduring life in Watts. Woodberry, Burnett, and Haile Gerima, director of 1979’s Bush Mama, which Burnett also photographed, were friends at UCLA and shared much of their experience and anger. 80 min.
Friday, April 15
4:30 A Program of Short Films by Charles Burnett. 1969–2007. USA. Since his student days, Burnett has continued to make short films. A complete listing is available at MoMA.org. Approx. 90 min. Introduction by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson.
7:00 America Becoming. 1991. USA. Screenplay by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson, Charles Burnett. Cinematography by Burnett. Narrated by Meredith Vieira. A prophetic PBS documentary about America’s shifting demographics. 90 min. Introduction by Dai Sil Kim-Gibson.
Saturday, April 16
1:30 Selma, Lord, Selma. 1999. USA. Directed by Burnett. With Jurnee Smollet, Mackenzie Astin, Clifton Powell, Ella Joyce, Yolanda King, Elizabeth Omilami. This Disney television movie provided Burnett with the opportunity for a deeply felt tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights movement. The film is admirably simple and direct, and the fine performance by Smollet demonstrates the gift for directing children that is evident in so much of Burnett’s work. 94 min.
5:00 To Sleep With Anger (See Thursday, April 7, 8:00).
7:30 A program of Short Films by Charles Burnett. (See Friday, April 15, 4:30).
Sunday, April 17
2:30 Nightjohn. 1996. USA. Directed by Burnett. With Carl Lumbly, Beau Bridges, Lorraine Toussaint, Bill Cobbs, Allison Jones. This Disney television movie, which movingly recreates plantation life during slavery and deals (as do so many of Burnett’s films) with the complications of family, is marked by superb performances. 96 min.
5:30 Finding Buck McHenry. 2000. USA. Directed by Burnett. With Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Ernie Banks, Michael Schiffman. In this Showtime television movie, Davis plays a school custodian who may have been a star in the Negro Leagues. Dee, who had starred opposite Jackie Robinson in his film biography a half-century earlier, comes full circle, playing opposite her husband (Davis) and the great Chicago Cubs infielder Ernie Banks, whose career was made possible by Robinson’s courageous precedent. 94 min.
Monday, April 18
4:30 Selma, Lord, Selma (See Saturday, April 16, 1:30) 8:00 The Glass Shield (See Friday, April 8, 4:30) Wednesday, April 20
4:30 The Final Insult (See Sunday, April 10, 5:30)
Thursday, April 21
4:30 Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property. 2003. USA. Written and directed by Charles Burnett, Frank Christopher, Kenneth S. Greenberg. With Carl Lumbly, William Styron, Henry Louis Gates, Burnett. Narrated by Alfre Woodard. This PBS documentary explores the differing views on the leader of the 1831 slave rebellion. 58 min.
8:00 Warming By the Devil’s Fire. 2003. USA. Directed and written by Charles Burnett. With Tommy Redmond Hicks, Nathaniel Lee, Jr. Narrated by Carl Lumbly. Episode 4 from the PBS documentary series The Blues. This history of the Blues includes much archival footage of Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Dinah Washington, and many others. In Burnett’s hands, it becomes an autobiographical exploration of his own roots in the South. 106 min
Friday, April 22
4:30 Bless Their Little Hearts (See Thursday, April 14, 8:00)
8:00 Relative Stranger. 2009. USA. Directed by Charles Burnett. With Cicely Tyson, Eriq La Salle, Michael Michele, Michael Beach, Dan Castellaneta. This Hallmark Channel television movie is an angst-ridden drama about passion and tension in a middleclass family kept in line by wise matriarch Tyson. 88 min.
Saturday, April 23
3:00 Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (See Saturday, April 9, 5:00)
8:00 Nightjohn (See Sunday, April 17, 2:30)
Sunday, April 24
2:30 Warming By the Devil’s Fire (See Thursday, April 21, 8:00).
5:30 Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (See Thursday, April 21, 4:30).
Monday, April 25
4:30 Relative Stranger (See Friday, April 22, 8:00).
8:00 Finding Buck McHenry (See Sunday, April 17, 5:30).
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