Bless Their Little Hearts

Billy Woodberry's 1984 American film follows Charlie Banks in the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles. He has been out of work for a long time; he takes day jobs, comes home, and the tension in the house rises a little each time. The film shows unemployment not as a statistic but as how time passes. Charlie waits in the street, collects his children from school, goes to a job and is not paid for it; the narrative gives these repetitions without shortening them. The screenplay and cinematography are by another director from the same circle; the film belongs to the generation of Black independent cinema that formed in Los Angeles in the seventies and eighties. The long argument scene in the kitchen is its best known passage. Who it's for: those who follow American independent cinema and social realism. Who it's not for: viewers waiting for an event; the film is almost entirely everyday wearing down.