Charles Burnett - Biography

Considered one of Americas greatest filmmakers, Charles Burnett was born in Mississippi in 1944, he grew up in Watts. He was one of the privileged blacks who had access to college education in those days; the 60s. He studied at UCLA's Film Department. He was first noticed in 1981 with Killer of Sheep which won a prize at Berlin. Burnett's film The Glass Shield, a tense rapid-fire police drama on the corruption and racism that plagues the Los Angeles Police Department, was shown in competition at Locarno.