Charles Burnett: A Cinema of Symbolic Knowledge

My forthcoming book, Charles Burnett: A Cinema of Symbolic Knowledge (University of California Press), is the first to be written about Burnett, and I hope others will someday appear. A straightforward critical discussion of his work, the book is organized chronologically, except for chapters dealing with three films for young people, three short films, and two screenplays (Bless Their Little Hearts and Man in a Basket, which is a yet-to-be produced adaptation of a Chester Himes novel). I set out to write the book because few people I knew, even among academic or journalistic specialists, had seen more than two or three films directed by Burnett. I believe he deserves close and comprehensive critical discussion, not only of his themes and social concerns but also of his artistry; and I've tried to cover his entire career, giving just as much attention to relatively well-known pictures such as Killer of Sheep, To Sleep with Anger, and The Glass Shield, as to rarely seen or discussed films and TV projects such as The Annihilation of Fish, Nightjohn, The Wedding, Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property, and Warming by the Devil's Fire. The following pages are excerpted from the introductory chapter of the book, which establishes my general argument and several of the recurring issues I discuss.