Killer of Sheep(1978)
dir. Charles Burnett
Watts, a slaughterhouse job, and no room to rest.
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Stan works at a slaughterhouse in Watts and is too tired to sleep, too tired to be present with his wife, too stubborn to take the criminal job a friend offers. Burnett made it as a UCLA thesis film with friends and non-professional actors, shot over a year of weekends, and it plays like a series of moments with kids, music and boredom. It was added to the National Film Registry in 1990.
Why it’s here
The film shows what poverty and a dead-end job do to a man's capacity to rest. What's punk is that it was made outside Hollywood, on its own terms, by a Black filmmaker, and it sat unreleased for decades over music rights. What's pedagogical is how much it says without explaining. Pairs with KAOS Theory and Hale County This Morning, This Evening.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- United States • North America
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