Charles Burnett at MFA Saturday night

In 1983, ignoring director Charles Burnett's request to finish editing his film, producers rushed it to a festival screening that received mixed reviews. With distributors scared off, My Brother's Wedding was tragically never released. Film critic Armond White called the debacle "a catastrophic blow to the development of American popular culture." Restored by the Pacific Film Archive and digitally re-edited by the director, My Brother's Weddingis an eye-opening revelation-wise, funny, and heartbreaking, just like Burnett's Killer of Sheep, which met with much acclaim during its presentation at the MFAH last June.
Most of the actors in My Brother's Wedding are nonprofessionals, and native Houstonian Henry G. Sanders, star of Killer of Sheep, has a small role. Everett Silas plays Pierce Mundy, who works at his parents' South Central Los Angeles dry-cleaning shop. With most of his childhood buddies in prison or dead and his brother busy planning a wedding to an upper-middle-class woman, Pierce navigates his conflicting obligations while trying to figure out what he really wants in life.
My Brother's Wedding is preceded by Quiet as Kept, Burnett's 2007 five-minute short on Hurricane Katrina. Filmmaker Charles Burnett introduces the Saturday screening, which is followed by a reception in his honor.
- SWAMP Newsletter