Charles Burnett is an unsung master of American cinema who led the way for black independent filmmakers to tell their stories on-screen with poetic-realist revelations like KILLER OF SHEEP and TO SLEEP WITH ANGER. In this original documentary, Burnett joins another trailblazing African American d...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1990 • United States

A slow-burning masterwork of the early 1990s, this third feature by Charles Burnett is a singular piece of American mythmaking. In a towering performance, Danny Glover plays the enigmatic southern drifter Harry, a devilish charmer who turns up o...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1999 • United States
Starring James Earl Jones, Lynn Redgrave, Margot Kidder

Virtually unseen for years only to reemerge as a lost gem of American independent cinema, this surprising, ineffably tender romantic comedy from master director Charles Burnett (KILLER OF S...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1994 • United States
Starring Michael Boatman, Lori Petty, Ice Cube

Charles Burnett’s powerful police drama follows J. J. Johnson (Michael Boatman), an idealistic rookie cop and the only Black officer in an all-white precinct, as he confronts racism and corruption w...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1977 • United States
Starring Henry Gayle Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy

A quiet revelation of American independent filmmaking, Charles Burnett’s lyrical debut feature unfolds as a mosaic of Black life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Stan (Henr...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 2003 • United States
Starring Carl Lumbly, Tommy Hicks, James Opher

Nat Turner’s slave rebellion is a watershed event in America’s long and troubled history of slavery and racial conflict. NAT TURNER: A TROUBLESOME PROPERTY tells the story of that violent confrontat...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1983 • United States
Starring Everett Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett

Recut and restored twenty-five years after its ill-fated premiere, Charles Burnett’s second feature is an eye-opening revelation—wise, funny, heartbreaking, and timeless. Pierce Mundy w...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1997 • United States

Charles Burnett cannily blends documentary and dramatic action with this searing, savagely ironic tale of a bank employee reduced to living out of his car, in a character study that doubles as a compassionate portrait of Los Angeles’s homeless c...

Directed by Charles Burnett • 2007 • United States

A squabble reveals the anxieties and generational differences within a New Orleans family displaced by Hurricane Katrina in this alternately comedic and casually profound video work.

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1995 • United States

Charles Burnett paints a jazz- and poetry-inflected portrait of African American community and resilience via the story of a mother who enlists a musician’s help when she is evicted on New Year’s Day.

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1973 • United States

A young boy keeps a horse company during its last moments of life in Charles Burnett’s spare, lyrical student film, which poignantly contrasts the callousness of adults with the empathy of children.

Directed by Charles Burnett • 1969 • United States

Charles Burnett’s first film already displays the director’s neorealist, poetry-of-the-everyday style as it follows a group of friends over the course of an aimless day in Los Angeles.