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Killer of Sheep

Hollywood and English-Language Studio Cinema

Killer of Sheep is a 1978 American drama film written, filmed, edited, produced and directed by Charles Burnett, shot primarily in 1972 and 1973 and originally submitted by Burnett to the UCLA School of Film in 1977 as his Master of Fine Arts thesis. It depicts the daily life of Stan, a weary slaughterhouse worker in 1970s Watts struggling to maintain his humanity while providing for his family, told not as a traditional linear plot but as a series of vignettes capturing the rhythms of working class life, childhood innocence and the frustrations of the urban environment, in a style critics have likened to Italian neorealism. Shot in black and white with a cast made up mostly of non-professional performers including many children, the film offers a vision of Watts at the tail end of the Great Migration, when most of its characters, like Burnett himself, were born in the South or were the children of parents who were. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Classification
Original Language
English 1
Award
National Film Registry 1
Release Year
1978 1
Connections

Created By

Source Killer of Sheep (Wikipedia)

In Medium

Film, Media Forms
Source Killer of Sheep (Wikipedia)

Long-Form Articles

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Original Language

Also in Language Atlas: the original language of this subject.

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Sources
1. Killer of Sheep (Wikipedia)
  • Killer of Sheep, Description, original language
    Killer of Sheep is a 1978 American drama film written, filmed, edited, produced and directed by Charles Burnett, shot primarily in 1972 and 1973 and originally submitted by Burnett to the UCLA School of Film in 1977 as his Master of Fine Arts thesis.
  • Lead
    In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress
  • Article lead sentence
    Killer of Sheep is a 1978 American drama film edited, filmed, written, produced, and directed by Charles Burnett.
  • Created By: Charles Burnett, Infobox: director
    Charles Burnett
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