Charles Burnett: My Brother's Wedding

My Brother’s Wedding, Charles Burnett, 113’, USA / BRD, ZDF 3.11.1983, OV with German subtitles

Charles Burnett, who made an African-American classic with Killer of Sheep, ventures into a neorealist style comedy in his second feature film. Pierce Mundy, likeable and unambitious, whose mother runs a dry-cleaning business in Los Angeles, has hardly any friends left: they are either dead or in prison. When his best friend dies and his brother, an aspiring lawyer, plans his wedding on the same day as the funeral, Pierce finds himself in a predicament. It was the director’s intention “to make it tense and claustrophobic, to make things seem in relief, up close. It’s like rushing head on into a wall. The metaphor is running blindly - a man who refuses to take control of his life.”

Charles Burnett (*1944), an American film director, scriptwriter and cinematographer, belongs to the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers, also known as L.A. Rebellion. His film Killer of Sheep (1981) is considered one of the 100 most important US films today, it was shown in the Berlinale Forum, in Toronto, and was then broadcast in Das kleine Fernsehspiel. Other films made in cooperation with the editorial department were My Brother’s Wedding (1983) and Final Insult for Documenta X. Restored versions of the first two films were shown again in the Berlinale Forum 2007 and 2008.