Charles Burnett

Stumbling over the obstacles they've each created in their imaginary lives, an unlikely pair finds love and fulfillment in a reality that finally transcends their fantasies. (American Sterling Productions)

Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life -- sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor. (Milestone Film & Video)

J.J. is a rookie state trooper in the Sheriff's Department and the first black officer at that station. Racial tensions run high in the department as some of J.J.'s fellow officers resent his presence. His only real friend is the other new trooper, the first female officer to work there... (imdb)

A charismatic old acquaintance drifts into town, stirring up trouble for a mild-mannered family. (imdb)

A man in a military uniform stumbles in an alley as a little girl in a white dress looks on... so begins Charles Burnett's first film, made while he was still a student at UCLA, and there is not a compromise to be seen in it. (paraphrased from fipresci.org)

Adapted by Charles Burnett from his own short story, this lyrical meditation on race relations is also a coming-of-age tale. Although it was shot in Northern California, Burnett has called The Horse a "kind of allegory about the South." (mfah.org)

A man who despises his upwardly mobile lawyer brother and the fiancee who he considers was raised in the lap of luxury far from the challenges of the ‘real’ world reluctantly agrees to be best man at his wedding. However a problem arises after he commits, as his close friend is killed in a car crash. The funeral, for which it is made obvious there will be no mourners, is to be held at the same time as the wedding.

Taking its title from a poem by Langston Hughes, America Becoming looks at the U.S. as the country becomes increasingly diverse, evolving from a primarily white into a multicultural society of diverse colors and nationalities... (hrw.org)

A musician spends New Year's Day trying to help his friend pay the rent. (imdb)

Filmmaker Charles Burnett examines the life of Nat Turner, a slave who led a revolt in Virginia in 1831.

One more relocated family post Hurricane Katrina. (imdb)

A young slave learns the power of literacy.

regards the Namibian independence struggle against South African occupation

In 1965 Alabama, an 11 year old girl (Jurnee Smollett) is touched by a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Clifton Powell) and becomes a devout follower. But her resolution is tested when she joins others in the famed march from Selma to Montgomery.

Part fiction, part documentary, Charles Burnett presents an unflinching look at homelessness in Los Angeles with empathy and concern. (imdb)