80 minutes. Not Rated. Directed by Charles Burnett. In English. DCP.
This screening is part of a series of films benefiting artists and arts workers impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. Proceeds will be donated to the LA Arts Community Wildfire Relief Fund.
One of the most renowned films in cinema, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep has been magnificently restored to 4K with sparkling picture and sound. Evoking the everyday trials, fragile pleasures, and tenacious humor of blue-collar African Americans in 1970s Watts, Burnett made the film on a minuscule budget with a mostly nonprofessional cast, combining keen on-the-street observation with a carefully crafted script.
The episodic plot centers on the character of Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a slaughterhouse worker mired in exhaustion, disconnected from his wife, his children, and himself. Stan and his neighbors struggle just to get by, let alone get ahead; as befits an L.A. movie, vehicular metaphors of breakdown abound. Only the kids, leaping from roof to roof, seem to achieve a mobility that eludes their elders.
Burnett’s film focuses on everyday life in black communities in a manner rarely seen in American cinema — combining lyrical elements with a starkly neorealist, documentary-style approach that chronicles the unfolding story with depth and riveting simplicity.
Burnett once said of the film, “[Stan’s] real problems lie within the family, trying to make that work and be a human being. You don’t necessarily win battles; you survive.”
For more information, visit the Portland Museum of Art website.
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