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A slightly out of focus black and white image of young boys playing on a sandy beach palm trees visible in the background

Artist's Choice Screening: Killer of Sheep

Duration: 1h 20m
Dates: Tue 7 Jul 2026 18:15

Selected by Francis Dosoo as one of his Artist's Choice Screening as part of Portrait of Dorothy Gale. 

Killer of Sheep examines life in the Black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. Frustrated by money problems, he finds respite in moments of simple beauty: the warmth of a teacup against his cheek, slow dancing with his wife, holding his daughter. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life — sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humour.

Filmed on location with a mostly amateur cast, much handheld camera work, and an episodic narrative with gritty documentary-style cinematography, Killer of Sheep has been compared by film critics and scholars to Italian neorealist films like Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves and Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan. Director Charles Burnett shot the film in roughly a year of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, paid for partially by a gift of $3,000 from Louis B. Mayer,  and out of the pocket of the director himself.  

One of the great achievements of the film is its soundtrack, which Burnett envisioned as an aural history of Black popular music, including songs by Etta James, Dinah Washington, Paul Robeson, Little Walter, and Earth, Wind & Fire. The soundtrack was ironically one of the reasons for its relative obscurity for years – the film never saw widespread commercial distribution due to the expense of clearing of the music rights to the songs featured on the film’s soundtrack.

 

a black and white image of a group of young boys of different ages running along the street
Killer of Sheep. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber
A young black man stares intently at another man who is just in foreground of the image
Killer of Sheep. Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber team
a black and white image of a young black boy standing against a fence with another boy wearing a dog mask in the background
Killer of Sheep still. Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber
A slightly out of focus black and white image of young boys playing on a sandy beach palm trees visible in the background
Killer of Sheep still. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber
a black and white image of a group of young boys of different ages running along the street
Killer of Sheep. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber
A young black man stares intently at another man who is just in foreground of the image
Killer of Sheep. Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber team
a black and white image of a young black boy standing against a fence with another boy wearing a dog mask in the background
Killer of Sheep still. Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber
A slightly out of focus black and white image of young boys playing on a sandy beach palm trees visible in the background
Killer of Sheep still. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber
a black and white image of a group of young boys of different ages running along the street
Killer of Sheep. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber
A young black man stares intently at another man who is just in foreground of the image
Killer of Sheep. Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber team
a black and white image of a young black boy standing against a fence with another boy wearing a dog mask in the background
Killer of Sheep still. Image Courtesy of Kino Lorber
A slightly out of focus black and white image of young boys playing on a sandy beach palm trees visible in the background
Killer of Sheep still. Image courtesy of Kino Lorber

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