Charles Burnett

a troublesome filmmaker

Míguez, María (ed.)
Paz, Víctor (ed.)

Charles Burnett is a legend of North American independent cinema. His classic Killer of Sheep (1977) was one of the first films to be catalogued as of special interest and worthy of preservation by the United States Library of Congress. With a style that portrays the Afro-American community with honesty and intimacy, his filmography follows the trajectory of blackness in his country, pausing in relevant historical moments such as slavery in the southern states, the struggle for civil rights, and class conflict in the present day. A brilliant chronicler of his time, he is, for Jonathan Rosenbaum, “the most gifted and important black filmmaker this country has ever had"