It’s great news for cinephiles as, fresh off successful runs in Los Angeles and New York City, a dazzling 35mm restoration of Charles Burnett’s fantastic Killer of Sheep will enjoy its first-ever proper theatrical distribution this spring and summer, from Milestone Films. One of the more acclaimed and influential movies by an African-American filmmaker, Killer of Sheep
was one of the first 50 films to be selected for the Library of
Congress’
National Film Registry.

Set
in Watts in the mid-1970s, the movie centers on a sensitive,
blue-collar dreamer (Henry Gayle Sanders) haunted by his work at a
slaughterhouse, and his struggles to keep his family together, and keep
from becoming detached and numb. Killer of Sheep was the award-winning student thesis project of Burnett (The Glass Shield), but due mostly to music licensing
problems and other rights issues, the
film has been screened publically very rarely, and then typically
only in film school settings and occasional retrospective presentations. For more information and a continually updated list of play dates and venues, click here.