Milestone

[drdoros]

Dennis, I saw you post a brief but hilarious story about your meeting with William Klein back when Milestone was hoping to license his films. Is it okay to repost here?

If you don't mind, I'll write it with a little more explanation of our meeting with William Klein.

When Amy and I first started what was to become Milestone, we were working out of our one-room apartment on Amsterdam and West 77th Street. Just after we married in 1990, Amy's sister moved out of her 28th-floor apartment at the Columbia on 96th and Broadway, and we moved in. It was a small one-bedroom apartment in a great building with doormen, a swimming pool, a laundry room, and racketball courts. For a young married couple living in the city, this was a very lucky circumstance. As we couldn't afford an office for Milestone, we moved our office into our apartment -- my desk and the file cabinets in the living room and Amy's in the bedroom. Along with the Milestone films we restored (stored at a depot), we had some 16mm prints given to us by friends over the years. One was William Klein's Mister Freedom -- I believe Grove Press had distributed it. It turned out to be a very rare subtitled print and everybody wanted to rent it on a William Klein tour that year. (They borrowed our print for a small fee and they paid him rental.) So after a while, we wrote a letter to Mr. Klein (he was living in France) asking if he would be interested in Milestone restoring and distributing all of his works. (Where I was going to get that kind of money, I have no idea.) He responded by saying he was going to be in the US and would meet us.

Came the day, the doorman let Mr. Klein and his wife in, they took the elevator up, and rang our bell. We were very excited to meet the famous photographer and filmmaker. The first words out of Mr. Klein's mouth were, "I just want you to know, I am not offended by your office." Taken aback, I replied, "Well, I'm not sure what would offend you. You grew up two blocks from here." Clearly peeved by my response, he went on to explain that all the distributors he visited had fancy offices. Strangely enough, we took them out to lunch and all he and his wife could do was rail against the American capitalist system (fair enough) and how horrible all Americans were. (I didn't feel Amy and I were that horrible. And besides, he was still an American citizen who did okay by himself financially.) Anyway, it was still ironic that he felt our office was not fancy enough and the one thing they never talked about was distributing his films.

Needless to say, Amy and I were not elite enough for him to bother with. Meanwhile, Amy and I had already decided that he (and his wife) was too impossible and boorish for us to distribute his work. Since then, Criterion has done a very good job bringing out his feature films.

A caveat -- this was our one impression of them. We've learned since then that you shouldn't judge someone by their reputation or on one meeting. People have bad days. It certainly was a bad day!

Dennis
Milestone Films

[hearthesilence]

Thanks Dennis! Sorry you had to go through that. I will say "I just want you to know, I am not offended by your office" is a perfect line for a Wes Anderson movie, as is the response "you grew up two blocks from here."

[pistolwink]

There's a certain species of American expat who needs to let it be known (to themselves among others) that they aren't like the rest by continuously and gratuitously putting down "Americans." See also Eugène Green (who even added the accent mark to make his name look more French).

[What A Disgrace]

Sessue Hayakawa's The Dragon Painter is being upgraded to Blu-ray, coming in September.

[drdoros]

The Dragon Painter is actually a new restoration by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival that adds about 7 more minutes of storyline. When the Eye Filmmuseum identified their fragment, their archivist realized that it had a lot more footage of Tsuro Aoki as Yumiko than our version did. In fact, it really fills in her story that was missing from the George Eastman Museum/Cinematheque Francaise restoration. It's a much better film now.

[andyli]

Special Features and Technical Specs:
NEW RESTORATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FILM
Two scores for The Dragon Painter – by Mas Koga and Makia Matsumura
Reconstructing The Dragon Painter (2024, 66 min.)
His Birthright (1918, 47 min., starring Sessue Hayakawa)
The Man Beneath (1919, 66 min., starring Sessue Hayakawa)
Illustrated booklet
Optional Dutch, French, German and Spanish subtitles

[Saturnome]

An hour long documentary on reconstructing the film? I'm in

[drdoros]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/articl ... mpowerment

Alma’s Rainbow review – early 90s coming-of-ager is gem of black female empowerment
Pioneering director Ayoka Chenzira gives voice to the inner lives of women at a time when they were mostly ignored, making this film a rare gift to treasure

Cath Clarke
Tue 30 Jul 2024 02.00 EDT
Ayoka Chenzira is a pioneering black director whose films have been finding a new audience with younger generations as she enters her 70s. Her 1994 feature debut Alma’s Rainbow has now been restored and rereleased; it is a coming-of-age movie that is funny and warm, if a little scrappy. It’s set in a Brooklyn townhouse owned by prim and proper Alma (Kim Weston-Moran), who runs a beauty parlour on the ground floor. In this all-women space, Chenzira luxuriates in her female characters. The fact that historically so few films have been made about the inner lives of black women gives Alma’s Rainbow a precious quality, and the feeling that it’s a gem to treasure.
Alma lives in the house with her teenage daughter Rainbow (played with charisma and spark by Victoria Gabrielle Platt). Rainbow has been skipping school to perform with a hip-hop street dance crew. In the neighbourhood, she’s known as a tomboy, but Rainbow is starting to think about boys. Her mum, Alma, is not impressed; she’s worked to the bone to make a success of the beauty parlour, to be an independent woman and build a better life for Rainbow. It makes her strict: “Keep your pants up and your dress down,” she instructs her daughter.

Then into their lives swans Alma’s sister Ruby (Mizan Kirby), a nightclub singer who’s been living in Paris. Ruby has the air of a superstar diva, though the truth is she can’t afford a taxi fare to the city. What follows is struggle for teenage Rainbow’s soul, all three women living under one roof.

And what a roof. The gorgeous set design, with a wood panelled bathroom and high ceilings, makes the house feel like a palace. (These days, actual royalty are among the few who can afford a place like this in Brooklyn.) The other glory of the film is the gorgeous costumes that add to the sense of putting these women on a pedestal, at a time the rest of the industry was mostly ignoring them.

Alma’s Rainbow is in UK cinemas from 3 August.

[drdoros]

VARIETY
Arrive on Disc in September
By Clayton Davis, Todd Gilchrist
The Dragon Painter

This 1919 drama, which was added to the National Film Registry in 2014, marks one of the earliest (and more than 100 years later, only remaining) films made in Hollywood featuring an all-Asian cast. Restored in 4K for the 2023 San Francisco Film Festival, this star vehicle for actor Sessue Hayakawa (who later appeared in “The Bridge on the River Kwai”) looks better than ever, and features two bonus features, “The Man Beneath” and “His Birthright.” It’s a must for fans of silent cinema and those seeking complex portraits of Asian characters in U.S. entertainment in that era.
https://variety.com/lists/best-4k-blura ... ases-2024/

[Stefan Andersson]

Mentions of a new restoration of Killer of Sheep, and of three years´ work improving Queen Kelly, in two different posts here, Jan. 04 and Jan. 12, 2025:

https://www.nitrateville.com/viewtopic. ... 2&start=30

[drdoros]

Mentions of a new restoration of Killer of Sheep, and of three years´ work improving Queen Kelly, in two different posts here, Jan. 04 and Jan. 12, 2025

I will neither confirm nor deny. However, the big news is here since this is the first theatrical release of a 25-year-old film that took us 22 years to acquire and restore.

INDIEWIRE
Trailer Premiere Exclusive: "Charles Burnett’s Lost Comedy ‘The Annihilation of Fish’ Lands 4K Theatrical Release — Watch the Trailer"
By Samantha Bergeson
January 17, 202
https://www.indiewire.com/news/trailers ... 235085307/

[hearthesilence]

Dennis, do you know which days (or even times) Charles Burnett's doing Q&A's at BAM? (I imagine it's up to BAM and they're still figuring it out, but I thought I'd ask just in case.)

[drdoros]

I know definitely the 14th. He might be there other days, but I just don't know.

[hearthesilence]

Got it - I guess I'll be having Valentine's dinner in Park Slope or Boerum Hill then!

[Peacock]

Queen Kelly?! This is huge news. Thank you Dennis, can’t wait to see the results of your work on the film at some point.

Excited for the rare Burnett as well! Milestone are really an exciting label to follow along with.

[ryannichols7]

wow, 2025 being the year of Von Stroheim is a lovely surprise. awesome stuff!!!

also...seems likely Criterion will work with Milestone on releasing Killer of Sheep and the other Burnett films, no? seems like the most likely path at this point, with the wait time, To Sleep With Anger being a Criterion, and the film's stature. rough reading that thread with Dennis talking about the viability of releasing various silents - I would personally love to see a disc release of Chang

[drdoros]

“The Annihilation of Fish” sneaks up on you; it’s as stealthy as Fish’s demon and can pack just as powerful a wallop. It’s a story about two people who find each other, and while love stories are often irresistible, what distinguishes this one is the tenderness of Burnett’s touch and the generosity of his worldview. He isn’t a showboat (he’s more Fish than Poinsettia), so it can be easy to miss the grace notes that fill this film, which makes room for characters who in other contexts might be called offbeat, strange or weird. They are also, simply, just people, which is why the image of Fish comfortingly extending his hand to another person is such a strikingly authorial gesture. - Manohla Dargis, NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/movi ... eview.html

[drdoros]

Yes, as most of you know already, we have collaborated with Criterion to bring out Killer of Sheep. Theatrical premiere in April, UHD/Blu-ray in May!

[What A Disgrace]

Elated. Are there plans for My Brother's Wedding?

[hearthesilence]

Apologies to pile on the questions, but is Nightjohn also impossible to license since it was done for the Disney Channel? (Also I'll add that when MoMA screened it in a Burnett retrospective, it was clearly from video, I'm guessing a broadcast-quality SD master. I wonder if 35mm sources even exist or are at least accessible?)

[beamish14]

Apologies to pile on the questions, but is Nightjohn also impossible to license since it was done for the Disney Channel? (Also I'll add that when MoMA screened it in a Burnett retrospective, it was clearly from video, I'm guessing a broadcast-quality SD master. I wonder if 35mm sources even exist or are at least accessible?)

Burnett and Beau Bridges attending a screening of it about two years or so back, and I hope it was recorded.

It’s such a shame that Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation only gets sporadic museum screenings, as it’s really great. I think it’s in 2:35, and certain scenes look like echoes of Sheep in Technicolor. I love the richness of the color palette Burnett uses, especially on this film and To Sleep with Anger

[hearthesilence]

It's so late in the game, it's kind of diminished my motivation to do this, but in hindsight, I wish I just recorded all the Q&A's I've been to. Had I set up a YouTube account and uploaded everything, it would've been a great resource. I was actually green enough to think they were all recorded for public release because typically there would be a camera and so many of them were (Lincoln Center's been the most reliable resource in that regard), but at this point, it's obvious that most of them are pretty much lost to time. I try to post notes every now and then, but I can't remember everything. Just one example - I saw Jesse Eisenberg do a Q&A for The Social Network and he gave a key insight into David Fincher's direction of actors, beyond the usual anecdote of shooting tons of takes. My memory on it is too hazy, but I think Eisenberg said Fincher basically had to put him at ease and convince him to trust him with regards to his character, saying if a director sets things up in a certain way, the audience would get such-and-such from his character and he wouldn't have to worry about it.

Anyway, with that in mind, I did catch the Valentine's Day screening, and it was great to see Burnett again. I chatted briefly with him afterwards - he was kind enough to stick around and talk to those who approached him - and I mentioned the last time I saw him was at MoMA's retrospective of his work. Looking it up now, that would've been spring of 2011 - oof, time flies. Regardless, the restoration looks spotless - either the negative was in pristine shape or they did an incredible job fixing any blemishes - and I was mighty impressed by James Earl Jones's performance, which was surprisingly physical. (I realize he did The Great White Hope, but this was a much older man in much different shape.) Not surprisingly, Burnett loved working with Jones - I can't remember if I posted this before, but the one time I met Jones, it was a long day where I sat across from him at dinner, and he couldn't have been nicer and welcoming. Burnett also clearly understood the film to be about mentally ill individuals and took that aspect very seriously even though it was an offbeat, comedic film - that is, it was important to be sympathetic to the reality they personally experience even though it's clearly different to what others live (which obviously creates some challenges).

At the start, Burnett pointed out that many people involved in the film were now gone, which made it a bittersweet occasion. Among those was Paul Heller, one of the film's producers, who passed away on December 28, 2020 - he actually has a cameo role in the film as the mailman, and Burnett emphasized that Heller made sure to hire a diverse crew. A large part of the back end of the discussion centered around representation, which was pretty sad to hear. He discussed being motivated to make films like Killer of Sheep in order to accurately portray African Americans, and the impact mainstream films have had for failing to do so. To put it in perspective, after one screening of To Sleep with Anger years later, someone in the audience told him that they didn't realize African Americans had washing machines. (tbf, probably says a lot about that person too!)

[drdoros]

It's so late in the game, it's kind of diminished my motivation to do this, but in hindsight, I wish I just recorded all the Q&A's I've been to. \

Thanks for coming to Fish! The good news is that the wonderful Michael Dennis of Reel Black came up from Philadelphia to record both Friday's Q&A (Charles with Jesse Trussel) and Saturday's (with Charles and Racquel Gates) for us so they will most likely be on the disc release.

It's true that we all feel the loss of the people who were such a huge part of the film (Paul Heller was extraordinarily kind and encouraging me over the years to acquire the film), but the good news is that James's son Flynn was there for both nights and really enjoyed himself and that the Redgrave children will be seeing the film soon. Kathy Heller (Paul's wife) and Kris Dodge (the producer) who both helped us save the film saw it last year at the UCLA premiere and they were very happy as well!

Dennis
Milestone Film & Video

[hearthesilence]

That's awesome, looking forward to seeing those on the disc! Also tangentially related to those mentioned who have seen Fish, when I caught To Sleep with Anger at MoMA in 2011, it was still unavailable (and had been for quite some time) and coincidentally I wound up sitting next to several people who clearly had worked on the film given their discussion just prior to the start time. I don't think Burnett knew they were attending, I think they were simply proud of the film and after all these years wanted to be there. That's a tremendous credit to not just Burnett's work but the goodwill he fosters on his productions. To put it in perspective, I've run into people in the film business who literally have ZERO interest in revisiting films they've worked on, much less seeing them again, and it's not like the films in question are difficult films to see - they're basically big budget studio blockbusters that are available everywhere.

[drdoros]

Watch the 4K Trailer for Charles Burnett’s Newly Restored Masterpiece ‘Killer of Sheep’
Exclusive: The 1977 indie was deemed one of the 50 greatest films of all time by the Sight and Sound critics' poll in 2022.
By Samantha Bergeson

February 18, 2025 2:00 pm

Charles Burnett‘s legacy is being restored — staring with the literal restoration with his most iconic film.

The acclaimed writer/director/producer/editor, who recently turned 90, has seen a lot — including his lost comedy “The Annihilation of Fish” earn a 4K restoration and theatrical release for the first time in the almost 30 years since its 1999 debut. And now, Burnett’s acclaimed feature “Killer of Sheep” is also landing a 4K re-release, plus a Criterion premiere.

“Killer of Sheep” was deemed one of the 50 greatest films of all time by the Sight and Sound critics’ poll in 2022. The 1977 indie was additionally among the first 50 films named to Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1990.

“Killer of Sheep” centers on Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a slaughterhouse worker who becomes disconnected from his wife, his children, and himself due to his grueling work.

The official synopsis reads: “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.”

Kaycee Moore, Carles Bracy, and Charles Burnett’s daughter Angela Burnett also star.

Charles Burnett shot the film in roughly a year of weekends on a budget less than $10,000. He was a UCLA graduate student at the time; “Killer of Sheep” helped usher in the L.A. Rebellion Black indie-filmmaking movement.

“Killer of Sheep” went on to receive the Critics’ Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1981.

Burnett said in a press statement that the origin for the feature was based on his own background.

“I come from a working class environment and I wanted to express what the realities were,” Burnett said. “People were trying to get jobs, and once they found jobs, they were fully concerned with keeping them. And they were confronted with other problems, with serious problems, at home, for example, which made things much more difficult.”

“Killer of Sheep” has been digitally restored to 4K and remastered by UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, and the Criterion Collection. The restoration was supervised by Ross Lipman and Jillian Borders, in consultation with Burnett.

The 4K restoration also restores the original closing song for the film, Dinah Washington’s performance of “Unforgettable.”

An earlier photochemical restoration was funded by Ahmanson Foundation in association with Sundance Institute. The film was preserved from the original 16mm B&W negative A and B rolls, the original 35mm three-track master sound mix, and the original 16mm master mix. The UCLA Film & Television Archive gives special thanks to Charles Burnett, the Stanford Theatre Foundation Film Preservation Center, and YCM Laboratories.

“Killer of Sheep” premieres April 18 at the Film Forum https://www.indiewire.com/news/trailers ... 1235096490