KILLER OF SHEEP - new 35mm print!

Rated Unknown; 83min; Director:Charles Burnett

Location: Alamo Downtown

KILLER OF SHEEP - NEW 35mm PRINT
AND THE FIRST-EVER THEATRICAL RELEASE!
MON MAY 21 & WED MAY 23 - 7pm, DOWNTOWN

"a blistering assessment of the L.A. ghettos 10 years after the Watts riots."
(Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle)

NEW Austin Chronicle interview with Charles Burnett!

One of the great American masterpieces can now be seen the way it was meant to be, in a dazzling new 35mm print. KILLER OF SHEEP is something of a miracle - a 16 millimeter black-and-white movie which was made for around ten thousand dollars. For his nonprofessional cast Charles Burnett used friends and people that he knew in his Watts neighborhood. The result is a portrait of life in the ghetto remarkable for its realism. Thrust into a series of scenes featuring many different characters, the audience must pay close attention until it becomes clear what the relationships are. Gradually a story emerges concerning a slaughterhouse worker named Stan, married with two kids, who is dissatisfied with his life but is unclear as to why. His wife wants more intimacy, but he closes himself off to her. Friends try to get him involved in some shady dealings - he rebuffs them. His everyday life is filled with setbacks and frustrations. Even this cursory outline makes it seem as if is has a linear story-line, but it's really more like a series of fly-on-the-wall snapshots of neighborhood life. The effect is like a tapestry or mosaic which reproduces the day-to-day experience of that world. Selected for the National Film Registry in 1990. (Chris Dashiell, Cinescene)

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"But despite the praise and honors, Killer of Sheep never found its way into theatrical release. It has always been and continues to play in non-theatrical presentations, but as modern classics go it never got the distribution it deserved. The film was pegged for a long-overdue theatrical and home video release from Milestone Film & Video, the acclaimed indie distributor celebrated for rescuing lost films (including Pasolini's "Mamma Roma"). Milestone acquired the rights to the film a few years ago after Burnett collaborated with the UCLA Film and Television Archive to restore the film. "Killer of Sheep" was blown up to 35mm and was provided with a significantly improved sound and picture quality. But to date, the restored version of the film was never released.

So what went wrong? It seemed that Burnett made ample and creative use of popular music from distant decades on his soundtrack; Jaime N. Christley marveled at "his sad soft use of old-timey radio love songs, or Gershwin in the slaughterhouse." Unfortunately, those songs come with hefty music clearance fees--especially for home entertainment release (which is something Burnett obviously never considered back in the 1970s when he shot the film). Milestone, to its surprise, found the level of music clearance payments to be much higher than it anticipated. At this writing, the distributor is still in negotiation to get this issue resolved so the film can be properly released." (Phil Hall, Film Threat)

IMAGES JOURNAL Four-page article on KILLER OF SHEEP

SLANT Magazine Review of KILLER OF SHEEP

KILLER OF SHEEP Review on Filmjourney.com

Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.

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