Check out this piece on NPR from Howie Movshovitz on "Killer of Sheep" the recently released film from Charles Burnett which was actually made in 1973, but never released commercially because Burnett never secured all of the rights to the music in the film. "Killer of Sheep" was one of the first 50 films added to National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and is hailed as "hauntingly beautiful portrait of Watts." The film was named one of the 100 essential films of all time by the National Society of Film Critics.
Dana Stevens of Slate says, "I saw Killer of Sheep in scratchy 16mm at a university museum screening more than 10 years ago, and it's remained in my memory ever since, not only as a great film about the African-American experience but as a great film, period. It's a joy to realize, all these years later, that I wasn't overrating it at all." David Edelstein of New York Magazine observes, "The soundtrack says the spirit of these people is inexhaustible, the images—the faces—say otherwise. Burnett says both things must be true. Killer of Sheep is indelible." Manohla Dargis of the New York Times says of the film "The result is an American masterpiece, independent to the bone."
