"Lost" Black Film Gem playing at IFC until 4/12
Killer of Sheep , Charles Burnett's much heralded film gem about black life in Los Angeles' Watts district is playing in the West Village until April 12th at the Independent Film Center. As the film's website mentions:
"Killer of Sheep was shot on location in Watts in a series of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. Finished in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival.
Since then, the Library of Congress has declared it a national treasure as one of the first fifty on the National Film Registry and the National Society of Film Critics selected it as one of the "100 Essential Films" of all time. However, due to the expense of the music rights, the film was never shown theatrically or made available on video. It has only been seen on poor quality 16mm prints at few and far between museum and festival showings.
Now, thirty years after its debut, the new 35mm print of Killer of Sheep, brilliantly restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive, is ready for its long-awaited international release. "
I saw this in an African American film course, a great film indeed.
There's alot of underrated filmwork for and/or about "us" that doesn't get recognized... like Nothing But A Man, Ganja and Hess, Haile Gerima's early short Bush Mama, etc.
Posted by
jbyrd130 |
4/11/2007