MY BROTHER’S WEDDING (1983)

Some films get a new life from being restored. For Charles Burnett’s second feature, restoration was the kiss of life. When he completed this study of clashing classes in Los Angeles’ black communities, the distributor rushed it to the New York Film Festival while still in rough cut. The critical response was so mixed, they never bothered releasing it. Almost 25 years later, Milestone Films picked up the rights and gave Burnett the chance to do his final edit. That newly restored version has come to be regarded as one of the cinema’s best depictions of black life. Everett Silas stars as a young man working in his family’s dry-cleaning business. When his upwardly-mobile attorney brother gets engaged to a well-off young woman, he’s torn between his duty to fit in with the woman’s family and his allegiance to his friends back home.

d. Charles Burnett, 81m, DCP

Digitally restored and remastered by Milestone Films in collaboration with UCLA Film & Television Archive and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Funding provided by: Milestone Films, Kino Lorber, UCLA Film & Television Archive, and Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.