Arika  Archive Menu
Accessibility Settings

text size

colour options

monochrome muted color dark

reading tools

isolation ruler
B&W film still of a boy jumping from one roof to another, taken from below

Killer of Sheep

Killer of Sheep

Killer of Sheep is an undisputed masterpiece of African-American filmmaking and one of the most poetic, perceptive dramas ever made about family and community.

Read
Killer of Sheep Dir: Charles Burnett, USA, 1977, 87 mins

Killer of Sheep makes visible the struggle undertaken by black communities as they improvise themselves in relation to social conditions that seek to habituate depression, mental fatigue and desensitization. It explores a space of numbing labour and insidiously enforced racial, gendered and class-based brutality – but also one of play, humour and love; forms of what Cornell West might call a ‘hope against hope, in order to survive the deplorable present’. If noise is whatever a system does not intend to broadcast, then from within a society predicated on spreading the lie of white supremacy, Killer of Sheep transmits the noise of black sociality.

Killer of Sheep was filmed in Watts, Los Angeles in the aftermath of the Watts Riots, with the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. Burnett made the film at weekends, over many years, using student equipment. It is one of the major films of the L.A. Rebellion, a movement that also included fellow UCLA student and filmmakers Larry Clark, Julie Dash, Jamaa Fanaka, Haile Gerima and Billy Woodberry. Although regarded as one of the greatest films of its time, it has hardly been seen in Scotland.

The film was introduced by Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa.

Links
Killer of Sheep Main Site Killer of Sheep Trailer

Documentation

8 images, 2 videos, 2 audio
Introduction
Download
Copyright © 2015
Question and Answer Session
Download
Copyright © 2015
Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa smile together as they do an introduction

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Shot of Screen showing the title frame of the film Bush Mama
Arthur Jafa gesticulates as he addresses the audience

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Silhouettes of audience heads as they watch Killer of Sheep on a screen

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling in a blue jacket answers an audience question

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa look towards the camera as a question is asked

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa look towards the audience during a question

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling in a blue jacket answers an audience question

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa smile together as they do an introduction

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Shot of Screen showing the title frame of the film Bush Mama
Arthur Jafa gesticulates as he addresses the audience

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Silhouettes of audience heads as they watch Killer of Sheep on a screen

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling in a blue jacket answers an audience question

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa look towards the camera as a question is asked

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling and Arthur Jafa look towards the audience during a question

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

Kara Keeling in a blue jacket answers an audience question

▴ Credit: Alex Woodward

?
This site uses cookies for analytics. See our Privacy Policy for more. OK Opt out
×