Killer of Sheep

Stan works in a slaughterhouse in the Watts district of Los Angeles and the job has emptied him out; he cannot sleep and cannot reach his wife. The film follows his days: children playing in the street, an attempt to buy an engine, conversations with neighbours. There is no plot. Charles Burnett made it as a university thesis on a very small budget, at weekends, with people from the neighbourhood. The music is extraordinary and is also why the film went unseen for years; the song rights were not cleared until 2007, when it was restored and finally released. The black-and-white photography and the scenes with the children carry it. It was among the first titles taken into the National Film Registry. Who it is for: viewers who like American independent cinema and poetic realism. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for incident, or troubled by slaughterhouse footage.