Close Up

7 May 2016: The Horse + My Brother's Wedding

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The Horse
Charles Burnett
1973 | 14 min | Colour | Digital

Charles Burnett employs a sparse lyricism in this haunting coming-of-age tale about an African American boy tending to a horse that is to be put down.

My Brother's Wedding
Charles Burnett
1983 | 113 min | Colour | DCP

"While Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep has gradually received the attention it deserves as a landmark of American independent filmmaking, its follow-up has long been ignored, due in large part to its status as a not-quite-finished film. It turns on the dilemmas faced by a young man torn between an alienating social advancement and a limiting past of petty crime. Working at his parents' dry-cleaning establishment in the days before his brother’s marriage, Burnett’s protagonist is suddenly confronted by the return from prison of a friend from his youth. The director has called My Brother’s Wedding a “"ragicomedy," and he embellishes the plot with episodes of gentle humor. The film’s producers rushed the film onto the festival circuit in a rough cut; Burnett was only able to finish editing his own version a few years ago." – Harvard Film Archive

Part of our Charles Burnett season