Charles Burnett’s ‘My Brother’s Wedding’ Returns to Film Forum in New 4K Restoration - Sept. 18–24.

Charles Burnett’s ‘My Brother’s Wedding’ Returns to Film Forum in New 4K Restoration

The landmark 1983 film from the director of Killer of Sheep will screen in New York from Sept. 18–24.

A newly restored 4K edition of Charles Burnett’s My Brother’s Wedding will open at New York City’s Film Forum on Friday, Sept. 18, for a one-week theatrical engagement through Thursday, Sept. 24.

Written, directed, produced and photographed by Burnett, the tragicomic 1983 drama follows Pierce Mundy, played by Everett Silas, a restless young man working at his parents’ dry-cleaning business in South Central Los Angeles.

While Pierce’s ambitious brother Wendell prepares to marry Sonia, an upper-middle-class woman Pierce dislikes, his closest friend Soldier returns home from jail. When tragedy strikes, Pierce is forced to choose between two deeply personal obligations: his brother’s wedding and his best friend’s funeral, both scheduled for the same day.

Funny, heartbreaking, and sharply observant, My Brother’s Wedding examines family responsibility, friendship, class divisions, and the frustration of feeling trapped without a clear path forward.

The production also brought together several artists who would become influential filmmakers and visual storytellers. Julie Dash, future director of Daughters of the Dust, served as first assistant director, while acclaimed artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa worked as first assistant camera on his first film set.

Burnett made the movie after receiving the Critics Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival for Killer of Sheep. Production and post-production delays, however, resulted in an unfinished version being screened at the 1984 New Directors/New Films festival. The film remained largely overlooked until Milestone Films acquired the rights, allowing Burnett to complete his preferred edit in 2007.

Now returning to theaters in a new 4K restoration, My Brother’s Wedding offers audiences another opportunity to experience one of Burnett’s most personal and enduring portraits of African American life in Los Angeles.

“Charles Burnett is best known for his landmark portraits of Black American life, from the aching neorealism of KILLER OF SHEEP, to the mordant mysticism of TO SLEEP WITH ANGER, his films aim to depict the broken contract the country made with its African American citizens in the aftermath of World War II. His lesser-known masterpiece MY BROTHER’S WEDDING, however, is emblematic of a different continuum running through Burnett’s films: the theme of becoming.”

– Robert Daniels, IndieWire

“Burnett’s work is an indelible reminder of what real independence looks like. His early films in particular also testify to the vitality of a neorealist impulse that has never quite taken root in American cinema. KILLER OF SHEEP and MY BROTHER’S WEDDING have a sense of place and personality that is marvelous and rare.”

– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“The release of Burnett’s 1983 follow-up, MY BROTHER’S WEDDING, in a new director’s cut, shows us how deep his humanist perspective goes, yielding more evidence of the subtlety and patience with which this filmmaker explores one of the great subjects of his career: the problem of dignity among a demoralized underclass.”
– Andrew Chan, Slant