Born in Mississippi and raised in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, Burnett is an independent filmmaker whose work has been praised for its portrayal of the African-American experience. He wrote, directed, produced, photographed and edited his first feature film, KILLER OF SHEEP, in 1977. His other features include MY BROTHER'S WEDDING, TO SLEEP WITH ANGER, THE GLASS SHIELD and NAMIBIA: THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION. Burnett also has made several documentaries including AMERICA BECOMING and NAT TURNER: A TROUBLESOME PROPERTY and short films as THE HORSE and WHEN IT RAINS.
1944
Charles Burnett is born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He spends his childhood in South Central L.A.
1972
Director Dee Rees shares how Burnett and KILLER OF SHEEP inspired her as a filmmaker.
1972
Burnett shoots KILLER OF SHEEP as his thesis film at UCLA. “It stayed in the can because I didn’t want to graduate,” he said. “There was no place to go to find equipment as cheap.”
1983
Burnett completes his second feature, MY BROTHER’S WEDDING. Though screened at film festivals on rare occasions, the film goes unreleased in its completed form until 2008.
1990
Christine Vachon shares how Burnett's deeply personal style of filmmaking shaped her as a producer.
1990
Burnett sees his widest theatrical release with TO SLEEP WITH ANGER, which receives positive reviews for its portrayal of a Los Angeles community upended by the arrival of a former neighborhood resident played by Danny Glover. “The film wins four Independent Spirit Awards (Best Director, Screenplay, Actor and Supporting Actress). The same year, KILLER OF SHEEP is selected by the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress as a work that is “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
1994
Following TO SLEEP WITH ANGER, Burnett directs the L.A. crime drama THE GLASS SHIELD, starring Michael Boatman, Lori Petty and Ice Cube.
1995
Burnett directs WHEN IT RAINS, a short comedy he calls “just a little movie about blues and jazz I made with some friends of mine; we got a camera, put all the equipment in a Volkswagen, and shot here and there and took advantage of everything we saw.”
1999
Burnett’s "Wonderful World of Disney" production, SELMA, LORD, SELMA, portrays the struggle of civil rights activists in Alabama.
2007
KILLER OF SHEEP gets a major art house theatrical release through Milestone Films, presented by Steven Soderbergh (who gave $75,000 to the project of restoring the film and clearing music rights).
2017
Charles Burnett will receive Honorary Award from the Academy's Board of Governors on November 11, 2017.