For 30 years, Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep was only rarely shown. Even after being named to the National Film Registry in 1990, it wasn't released theatrically or on video. As David Kehr wrote in the New York Times, the reason was the film was made as Burnett's graduate film at UCLA, so the music rights were never cleared.
I was lucky enough to see it many years ago when I lived in New York. I saw Burnett speak when Nightjohn (which is available on DVD) was shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1996 and at Pacific Film Archive during a retrospective in 2004.
It took six years and $150,000 (half donated by Steven Soderbergh) was spent to get the music rights. They still weren't able to get the rights to Unforgettable by Dinah Washington which played during the closing of the film (and is still listed in the closing credits - you can buy it on itunes for 99 cents and bring your ipod to the theater).
Killer of Sheep is playing in theaters in some cities through the fall. It is at the Castro and Rafael through Thursday. It will continue through at least next week at the Shattuck in Berkeley. It will be out on DVD along with My Brothers Wedding and some short films on November 13th, but see it in a theater if you can. Hopefully, his 1990 film, To Sleep with Anger, will also soon be available again on DVD.
Interview with Burnett, another interview, interview with links at bottom (though some don't work)
Review and story from NPR.
Review by J. Hoberman
More reviews and articles.
It took six years and $150,000 (half donated by Steven Soderbergh) was spent to get the music rights. They still weren't able to get the rights to Unforgettable by Dinah Washington which played during the closing of the film (and is still listed in the closing credits - you can buy it on itunes for 99 cents and bring your ipod to the theater).
Killer of Sheep is playing in theaters in some cities through the fall. It is at the Castro and Rafael through Thursday. It will continue through at least next week at the Shattuck in Berkeley. It will be out on DVD along with My Brothers Wedding and some short films on November 13th, but see it in a theater if you can. Hopefully, his 1990 film, To Sleep with Anger, will also soon be available again on DVD.
Interview with Burnett, another interview, interview with links at bottom (though some don't work)
Review and story from NPR.
Review by J. Hoberman
More reviews and articles.
Originally posted on tigerbeat.vox.com
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