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33 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE THIS QUARTER IN FILM HISTORY "Precious Memories" to be a recurring element in the story, and blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon plays a friend who sings "See See Rider" at Gideon and Suzie's fish fry for the newly arrived Harry. Along with a few other gospel and blues songs he originally had in mind, the director hoped to rely on old records to serve as a score. During the editing process, though, he realized that the tracks simply wouldn't tie the story together appropriately. After the director's first cut was completed at the end of September, composer Stephen James Taylor came in and, said Burnett, "saved the day. He knew what the film was about." Taylor fashioned an evocative background score with guitar and harmonica, performing both instruments himself. He has worked with Burnett on eight more projects since Anger. Post-production was completed the week before Christmas, and To Sleep with Anger was screened publicly for the first time in January 1990 at the Sundance Film Festival, winning a Special Jury Award. The Samuel Goldwyn Company immediately acquired theatrical and TV rights and agreed to share print and ad costs with Sony Video. Working with the Goldwyn Company, though, must have reminded Burnett of his relationship with PBS. The distributor wanted to change the title but executive producer Pressman fully supported the filmmaker on this and other issues that arose. It also seemed to Burnett that Goldwyn geared its marketing toward art houses, booking the movie in theatres not usually frequented by black audiences. The film's release in Washington, DC, though, was successful, with fellow LA Rebellion filmmaker Gerima — now a professor at Howard University — helping to bring out the African- American audience. Some years later, despite Anger's limited distribution, Burnett received an unexpected honor that gave him a genuine sense of personal vindication. In 2007, he was in South Africa making the docudrama Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation with Anger actors Glover and Lumbly. In the midst of production, he got a call from the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration inviting him to come to Mississippi to receive its annual Horton Foote Award for Special Achievement in Screenwriting "for Southerners who have excelled in writing screenplays." Despite the distance, Burnett immediately agreed to attend the event. Accepting the award, he related his experience working on To Sleep with Anger with PBS 20 years earlier: "The PBS executives told me they 'didn't like long conversation scenes' in their shows. I said, 'Horton Foote has long conversations in his PBS projects.' They replied, 'You're not Horton Foote.'" Today, according to Anger executive producer Tulchin, with both the Goldwyn Company and Capitol Films (the film's initial international sales company) no longer in existence, the status of distribution rights for To Sleep with Anger is "splintered" at best. Even though Sony provided a new print for a retrospective of the LA Rebellion films at the UCLA Film Archives in 2011, and has retained worldwide home video rights, it has done nothing to make the film available on DVD for American audiences. Now, however, the film is attracting greater recognition for its authentic and moving perspective on American life. The Chicago International Film Festival screened To Sleep with Anger this October and honored Burnett with its Career Achievement Award "for his contributions to cinema." f To Sleep with Anger. Courtesy of Charles Burnett