My Brother’s Wedding
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About
Director: Charles Burnett Run Time: 81 min.
Format: 4K DCP
Release Year:
1985
Starring: Dennis Kemper, Everett Silas, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Jessie Holmes, Ronnie Bell
For the follow up to his remarkable debut film Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett created a tragicomic masterpiece of realism that has largely gone unseen until now. Pierce Mundy (Silas) is employed at his parents’ South Central dry cleaners with no prospects for the future—his childhood buddies are all in prison or dead. Pierce’s best friend Soldier (Bell) is just getting out of jail. Pierce’s brother Wendell (Easter), an up-and-coming lawyer, is busy planning a wedding to a snooty upper-middle-class black woman named Sonia (Shannon-Burnett, who co-produced the film). Pierce’s pious, Bible-touting mother (Holmes) provides occasional comic relief but also a heartfelt moral backbone to the film, as she urges Pierce to accept his responsibility to his family. When Soldier is killed in a car accident, Pierce’s conflicting obligations to family and friends becomes manifested in the choice between his brother’s wedding and his best friend’s funeral — both falling on the same day.
After the producers rushed an incomplete rough-cut version to a New York festival premiere, Burnett’s sophomore feature was ignored by distributors and never officially released to U.S. cinemas. Now, following a gorgeous restoration by the Pacific Film Archive and a beautifully-accomplished re-edit by the director, MY BROTHER’S WEDDING is an eye-opening revelation—it is wise, funny, heartbreaking and timeless. – adapted from notes by KinoLorber Films
“One of Burnett’s masterpieces.” – Robert Daniels, IndieWire
“A sense of place and personality that is marvelous and rare… humorous, loving and honest.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Format: 4K DCP
Release Year:
1985
Starring: Dennis Kemper, Everett Silas, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Jessie Holmes, Ronnie Bell
For the follow up to his remarkable debut film Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett created a tragicomic masterpiece of realism that has largely gone unseen until now. Pierce Mundy (Silas) is employed at his parents’ South Central dry cleaners with no prospects for the future—his childhood buddies are all in prison or dead. Pierce’s best friend Soldier (Bell) is just getting out of jail. Pierce’s brother Wendell (Easter), an up-and-coming lawyer, is busy planning a wedding to a snooty upper-middle-class black woman named Sonia (Shannon-Burnett, who co-produced the film). Pierce’s pious, Bible-touting mother (Holmes) provides occasional comic relief but also a heartfelt moral backbone to the film, as she urges Pierce to accept his responsibility to his family. When Soldier is killed in a car accident, Pierce’s conflicting obligations to family and friends becomes manifested in the choice between his brother’s wedding and his best friend’s funeral — both falling on the same day.
After the producers rushed an incomplete rough-cut version to a New York festival premiere, Burnett’s sophomore feature was ignored by distributors and never officially released to U.S. cinemas. Now, following a gorgeous restoration by the Pacific Film Archive and a beautifully-accomplished re-edit by the director, MY BROTHER’S WEDDING is an eye-opening revelation—it is wise, funny, heartbreaking and timeless. – adapted from notes by KinoLorber Films
“One of Burnett’s masterpieces.” – Robert Daniels, IndieWire
“A sense of place and personality that is marvelous and rare… humorous, loving and honest.” – A.O. Scott, The New York Times
