Three stylistically diverse shorts demonstrate Burnett's abiding interests in community, family, and the cultural significance of music. Several Friends (1969, 21 mins, B&W, 35mm, Courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive) prefigures Killer of Sheep and My Brother's Wedding with its bleakly comic slice of L.A. black life, its protagonists dreaming of Hollywood parties, flashy rides, and fine broads while coping with everyday breakdowns. The moody, enigmatic The Horse (1973, 13 mins, Color, 16mm, Courtesy UCLA Film & Television Archive) depicts a bleached rural landscape where various characters, including a young boy, anticipate an inevitable act of violence. A contemporary griot traverses an L.A. neighborhood in search of rent money for a young mother in When It Rains (1995, 13 mins, Color, 16mm, From the artist), “a masterpiece about the disparate elements of a modern American community and the humane art-the good humor-that binds it” (Armond White, Film Comment).

Several Friends, The Horse, and When It Rains are repeated on Friday, April 9.