A key figure in the "L.A. Rebellion" of the 1970s, that movement of young African-American filmmakers who emerged from the UCLA Film School to create a new form of independent cinema, Charles Burnett has directed some of the finest films of the past two decades. His debut feature, the powerful family drama Killer of Sheep, was among the first contemporary works selected for the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. To Sleep with Anger was honored by both the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics. His adaptation of the contemporary young people’s classic Nightjohn, made for cable television, was screened at film festivals and cinemathèques worldwide.

In 1988 Burnett was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and in 1997 he was the only American filmmaker commissioned by the prestigious international arts festival Documenta to create a new work in film. Burnett has made a career in filmmaking without abandoning the principles that guided his earliest work—a fundamental commitment to render the complex lives of his characters in the most nuanced detail and an unerring respect for the sensibilities of his audiences.