I first saw Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep my freshman year at Bard. I instantly decided that this was the kind of film I wanted to make. A quiet observation of life encapsulated in a moving photograph. The film wasn’t released until 2007 even though is was shot thirty years earlier in the Watts section of Los Angeles as Burnett’s Senior film project at UCLA. As legend goes he didn’t have the funds to purchase the music rights to whatever tracks he used so the film stayed an underground classic for decades until the film community finally raised whatever couple hundred grand was needed to buy the music rights for the film. This is truly one of the greatest films of all time. It is beautiful without trying, moving and thought provoking. I have been obsessed with it for years and if you’ve spent more than fifteen minutes with me you’ve probably heard me wax poetic about it. This clip is one of a thousand that should be watched again and again.
