In the Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the md-1970s, a sensitive dreamer named Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) begins to grow numb and detached from the daily psychic toll that his job in a slaughterhouse is causing. Frustrated by money worries, Stan manages to find relief where he can, whether it be a quiet dance with his wife or the simple joy of holding his daughter. Filmed in 1977 on a budget of just $10,000, Charles Burnett’s magnificent Killer of Sheep was beset by distribution woes for years, and is just now receiving the national theatrical release it richly deserves. Acted by a largely non-professional cast, the film can be seen as the American equivalent of neo-realist classics like The Bicycle Thief and Shoeshine, yet it remains one the cinema’s most original – and profoundly affecting – modern masterworks. Declared a National Treasure by the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry in 1990, and named in 2002 as one of the 100 essential films of all time by the National Society of Film Critics. (80 min.)
“A flat-out treasure, impervious to time.” –Jay Carr, The Boston Globe
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