Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/600849
29 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY a middle-class family drama grows into a mystery when a friend (Glover) from the family's now- distant Southern past suddenly appears. In turn, his disturbing presence foreshadows an imminent family tragedy. Sharpened by the film's realist observation, the drama gives way to black comedy (no pun intended) exposing the persistence of American racial divisions. The final 20 minutes transcend underlying personal tensions to achieve nothing less than a state of grace. The three generations of this family are people with recognizable attachments and aspirations. The conflicts they face — between resentment and reconciliation, freedom and responsibility, traditional outlooks and the pressures of contemporary society — are universal. The film conveys this universality through its rich and precise imagery, evoking the specific history, background and culture of its central family so that all viewers can identify with them. One of the film's lead actors, Sy Richardson, who also appears in Burnett's My Brother's Wedding (1983) and The Glass Shield (1994), came straight to the point in an interview at the time of its release: "To me, Charles is the only director I know that shows us African Americans like we really are." Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1944, Burnett grew up in Watts and went to UCLA Film School. There he became one of a group of black filmmakers — including Haile Gerima, Billy Woodberry, Julie Dash, Ben Caldwell and others — who later became known as the LA Rebellion. Burnett's first feature, Killer of Sheep, completed in 1973, found distribution in 1978. It was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1990. In the mid-1980s, Burnett was offered an opportunity for funding and exposure through the Public Broadcasting Service and began developing a script based on a true story. To enhance the drama, PBS insisted that he alter the facts. Not wishing to distort a real story, he proposed an original fictional story, which became To Sleep with Anger. "I submitted the script and they immediately wanted changes," Burnett recently told CineMontage. "They wouldn't send me any money to continue work on it until the changes were made…but they wanted to take the heart of the story out." The network intended the show for a mainstream audience and wanted the filmmaker to remove cultural details that reflected the African-American experience. In a letter to Burnett terminating their relationship, PBS wrote, "You'll never be a writer." Meanwhile, fresh from completing Steve De Jarnatt's Cherry 2000 (1987), producer Caldecot Chubb was looking for a new project, and screenwriter Michael Tolkin recommended that he see if Burnett had anything in the works. After reading Anger, Chubb actively started seeking backing for it. Then, in 1988, Burnett received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," allowing him to further develop the project, and Edward Pressman came on as executive producer. When Glover — at the height of his studio career after two Lethal Weapon movies (1987, 1989) — agreed to play the key role of Harry Mention, the visitor, he became the film's second executive producer. A third executive producer, Harris Tulchin, joined by his law partner Thomas Byrnes (who became the second credited producer), secured financing from Sony Video. For filmmaker Burnett, the sweetest part of the deal was that Sony only required that the film be kept down to a marketable length. As the project approached production, the three executive producers and the two producers were joined by line producer Darin Scott and three associate producers. This led to industry jokes about a low-budget picture needing nine producers to get made. Shot entirely on location, the 28-day shoot (with three additional days for pickups) began in mid-June and continued through the end of July, 1989. The home of the family elders was a house To Sleep with Anger. Courtesy of Charles Burnett