A quiet revelation of American independent filmmaking, Charles Burnett’s lyrical debut feature unfolds as a mosaic of Black life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a father worn down by his job in a slaughterhouse, and his wife (Kaycee Moore) seek moments of tenderness in the face of myriad disappointments. Equally attuned to the world of children and that of adults, Burnett—acting as director, writer, producer, cinematographer, and editor—finds poetry amid everyday struggles in indelible images that glow with compassionate beauty. Largely unseen for decades following its completion in 1977, Killer of Sheep is now recognized as a touchstone of the groundbreaking LA Rebellion movement, and a masterpiece that brought Black American lives to the screen with an aching intimacy like no film before.
Killer of Sheep was restored and remastered by UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, and the Criterion Collection.
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Supplements
- Audio commentary featuring Charles Burnett and film scholar Richard Peña
- New interviews with Charles Burnett and actor Henry Gayle Sanders
- New appreciation by filmmaker Barry Jenkins
- Two short films by Burnett: Several Friends (1969) and The Horse (1973), with a new introduction to the latter by Burnett
- Excerpt from the 2010 UCLA LA Rebellion Oral History Project, featuring an interview with Charles Burnett by film scholar Jacqueline Stewart
- A Walk with Charles Burnett (2019), a documentary by Robert Townsend
- Cast reunion from 2007
- Trailer
- An essay by critic Danielle Amir Jackson