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New 4K Restoration of Black Indie Masterpiece KILLER OF SHEEP Opens April 18th in New York + Q&A with Charles Burnett!

Posted April 2, 2025

“Killer of Sheep is a lyrical portrait of a community

on the margins… Groundbreaking!” – Sean Baker

Watch the trailer here.

Download the trailer, poster, copies and other materials here.

KILLER OF SHEEP is also available with educational and institutional screening and streaming rights, and for community screenings. For more information about how to purchase a license or host a screening, click here.

For more info and tickets, visit: bit.ly/killerofsheep4k

Charles Burnett's cinematic masterpiece Killer of Sheep, magnificently restored in 4K with sparkling picture and sound, is one of the crown jewels of the Black indie filmmaking movement known as the L.A. Rebellion. The film evokes the everyday trials, fragile pleasures, and tenacious humor of blue-collar African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1970s. Burnett made it on a minuscule budget with a mostly nonprofessional cast, combining keen on-the-street observation with a carefully crafted script.

The story centers on Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a slaughterhouse worker battling exhaustion and disconnected from his wife, his children, and himself. Stan and his neighbors struggle just to get by, let alone get ahead. Only the kids, leaping from roof to roof, seem to achieve a mobility that eludes their elders. Burnett’s film focuses on everyday life in Black communities in a manner rarely seen in American cinema – combining lyrical elements with a starkly neorealist, documentary-style approach that combines deep nuance with riveting simplicity. Burnett once said of the film, “[Stan’s] real problems lie within the family, trying to make that work and be a human being. You don’t necessarily win battles; you survive."

A Kino Lorber release.