Charles Burnett is an American film director, producer, writer, editor, actor, photographer, and cinematographer. His most popular films include Killer of Sheep (1977), My Brother’s Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990), The Glass Shield (1994), and Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007). He has been involved in other types of motion pictures including shorts, documentaries, and a TV series. Considered by the Chicago Tribune as “one of America’s very best filmmakers”, and by the New York Times as “the nation’s least-known great filmmaker and most gifted black director”, Charles Burnett has had a long and diverse filmmaking career.

Filmography

• 2020Cinetracts '20 — Director, Story
• 2018The Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution — Director
• 201042 One Dream Rush — Director
• 2009Relative Stranger — Director
• 2007Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation — Director, Writer
• 2007Quiet as Kept — Director, Writer, Editor, Producer, Director of Photography
• 2003For Reel? — Director, Writer
• 2003Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property — Lucinda, Director, Writer
• The Blues — Writer, Director
• 2003Warming by the Devil's Fire — Director, Writer
• 2000Finding Buck McHenry — Director
• 2000Olivia's Story — Umpire, Director, Editor
• Independent Lens — Director
• 1999Selma, Lord, Selma — Director
• 1999The Annihilation of Fish — Director
• 1998The Wedding — Director
• 1997Documenta X - Die Filme — Director
• 1997The Final Insult — Director of Photography, Writer
• 1996Nightjohn — Director
• 1995When It Rains — Director, Writer
• 1994The Glass Shield — Director, Writer
• 1993Sa-I-Gu — Camera Operator
• 1991America Becoming — Director of Photography, Writer
• 1990To Sleep with Anger — Director, Writer
• 1989From Rags to Reality — Director of Photography
• 1989Guests of Hotel Astoria — Director of Photography
• 1986Crocodile Conspiracy — Director of Photography
• 1985My Brother's Wedding — Director, Writer, Producer, Director of Photography
• 1984Bless Their Little Hearts — Writer, Director of Photography
• 1982A Different Image — Director of Photography
• 1982Illusions — Editor
• 1980The Pocketbook — Director of Photography
• 1979Bush Mama — Director of Photography
• 1979Your Children Come Back to You — Editor, Director of Photography
• 1978Killer of Sheep — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor, Director of Photography
• 1975Welcome Home Brother Charles — Camera Operator
• 1973The Horse — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor
• 196969 Pickup — Director of Photography
• 1969Several Friends — Director, Writer, Producer, Editor

Appearances as themselves (9)

• Hollywood Black — Self
• 2022Charles Burnett : Le rebelle silencieux de Watts — Self
• 2022Is That Black Enough for You?!? — Self
• 2019A Walk with Charles Burnett — Self
• 2017We Blew It — Self
• 2016Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA — Himself
• 2014Dreams Are Colder Than Death — Self
• The Story of Film: An Odyssey — Self
• 2011These Amazing Shadows — Self