Film Forum

Charles Burnett’s MY BROTHER’S WEDDING

Charles Burnett · 1983 · U.S. · 81 min

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In this tragicomic work of realism, Pierce Mundy (Everett Silas) is employed at his parents’ South Central Los Angeles dry cleaners with no prospects for the future—his childhood buddies are all in prison or dead. Pierce’s best friend Soldier (Ronnie Bell) is just getting out of jail. Pierce’s brother Wendell (Monte Easter), an up-and-coming lawyer, is busy planning his wedding to a snobbish upper-middle-class black woman named Sonia (Gaye Shannon-Burnett, who co-produced the film). Pierce’s pious, Bible-touting mother (Jessie Holmes) provides occasional comic relief but also a heartfelt moral backbone to the film, as she urges Pierce to accept his responsibility to his family. When Soldier is killed in a car accident, Pierce’s conflicting obligations to family and friends become manifest in the choice between his brother’s wedding and his best friend’s funeral—both falling on the same day. The film’s climax has Pierce desperately trying to be two places at once and ending up nowhere. A MILESTONE FILMS/KINO LORBER RELEASE