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What a coincidence - I e-mailed to ask about these a few days ago (after having become completely smitten with To Sleep With Anger).

Dear Jon,
I'm sorry to say, but KILLER OF SHEEP is not out yet. We are still clearing the music rights, but we hope to have the DVD released by the end of next year in a planned package with Charles Burnett's other films, MY BROTHER'S WEDDING, THE HORSE, SEVERAL FRIENDS and WHEN IT RAINS. We'll email you when this happens.

Thank you for writing!

Dennis Doros

Milestone have been saying for a couple of years now that they want to rerelease the film theatrically before they release the DVD, and lo and behold, it's part of the upcoming festival of restoration at UCLA.

The Masters of Cinema website is listing Milestone's release of Killer of Sheep for December. That'll go to the top of my Xmas list.

MOC now has it listed for April of 2006. For those in the Denver area, Burnett will be presenting Sheep, To Sleep with Anger, and a third film to be announced at the Starz FilmCenter in early February.

From MoC:

"As this article goes to press, [Charles] Burnett is in the final editing stages on what may be his most ambitious project to date — a biopic of Sam Nujoma, the first president of Namibia — and the folks at the invaluable Milestone Film & Video confirm that their long-standing project to issue both Killer of Sheep and My Brother's Wedding on DVD should reach fruition by year's end."

Killer of Sheep

"The Charles Burnett Project was completed with the support of International Film Circuit, Inc., Steven Soderbergh and Turner Classic Movies...On its thirtieth anniversary, Milestone Films has cleared all the rights and will present UCLA Film & Television Archives dazzling 35mm restoration of this landmark film."

The full press announcement is expected next week.

This has become an extreme situation of I'll believe it when I see it. I thought like three years ago I'd finally be able to see this wonderful film on something than just a worn VHS at the local library. I can't wait for its release. It just seems to be never going to come to fruition. Perhaps now will finally be the time.

This is the real thing; there have been rumors and promises but no official announcement. The film screens commercially in Los Angeles in April.

Floyd wrote:I thought like three years ago I'd finally be able to see this wonderful film on something than just a worn VHS at the local library.

Hey, at least you had that opportunity.

Doug Cummings wrote:This is the real thing; there have been rumors and promises but no official announcement. The film screens commercially in Los Angeles in April.

I'm pretty confident this will pan out too, but let's not be over-confident. Several years back it was booked for a week-long run at the Grand Illusion in Seattle. On the published calendar and everything. Then, a couple weeks before the screening date, it was pulled....

It's definitely showing at IFC in NYC in March or thereabouts. Not that I care.

From press release:

"Killer of Sheep will screen first at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival and then has its US premieres in New York at the IFC Center on March 30 and in Los Angeles at the Nuart Theatre on April 6.

Milestone is also releasing a brand-new 35mm print of the Pacific Film Archive's restoration of My Brother's Wedding (Burnett's second feature), which will be available for special screenings. Also, Burnett's short films, The Horse, Several Friends and When it Rains, will be available for digital projection. The DVD of the box set will be released in the fall of 2007."

The Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin has screenings of "Killer of Sheep" (new 35mm print) scheduled for May 21 and 23.

FYI.

Friday, March 30th, KILLER OF SHEEP - IFC Center, NY. US Restoration premiere (with modifications in consultation with Charles Burnett); intro by Ross Lipman.

Friday, April 6th, KILLER OF SHEEP - NuArt Cinema, Los Angeles. Intros by Henry Sanders, Ross Lipman.

April 20-26 in Denver.

Here is the trailer.

Milestone's website now has a concrete release date...November 13, 2007.

Saw this last night at the IFC Center. What a wonderful film. Ed Gonzales' review compares it to Cassavetes, Bresson, Renoir and Green -- all of which I find to be apt comparisons. The film's verite reality with bursts of poetic lyricism -- ahh! a beautiful film.

Faux Hulot wrote:Friday, March 30th, KILLER OF SHEEP - IFC Center, NY. US Restoration premiere (with modifications in consultation with Charles Burnett); intro by Ross Lipman.

Friday, April 6th, KILLER OF SHEEP - NuArt Cinema, Los Angeles. Intros by Henry Sanders, Ross Lipman.

Does anyone know what this is referring to? The Milestone press release says the music rights have been cleared and the press kit lists an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, so it doesn't sound like the film has been re-composed for 1.85 (many/most non-repertory house don't run anything taller than 1.66, and many of those get projected at 1.85).

Per the recent New York Times article on the film's restoration, the changes include replacing Dinah Washington's "Unforgettable" with her "This Bitter Earth" in the slaughterhouse scene. Apparently Milestone couldn't afford the rights to the former. Some of the visuals were digitally tweaked as well, to make up for lighting "problems."

So in a sense this is not a "restoration" in a strong sense but a kind of revision. I'm not sure how terrible that is--Burnett should have some kind of right to make changes to his own film, even if these belie somewhat the film's student origins. But I think it's important that this fact be recognized. The existing prints of the original version (with "Unforgettable") remain important and have *not* been superseded by this new version. But I'm afraid the publicity surrounding this new version, however welcome, will mean that those older prints will languish.

A friend of mine just sent me an article about the film via email, so I don't have a direct link. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned before, but this little part of the article made my respect for Steven Soderbergh go up a notch more:

[quote]Milestone went after the owners of the songs first, and the performers second. “At some point, I thought, this is going to be a lifelong project,â€

That was nice of him! =D>

jonah.77 wrote:Per the recent New York Times article on the film's restoration, the changes include replacing Dinah Washington's "Unforgettable" with her "This Bitter Earth" in the slaughterhouse scene. Apparently Milestone couldn't afford the rights to the former.

I just saw this tonight at the Lagoon in Minneapolis. And here I thought the purpose of "This Bitter Earth" in the slaughterhouse scene was to intentionally link it to the scene when it was first played -- Stan and his wife slow-dancing in their living room. I figured that with all the cuts between the sheep and the neighborhood throughout the movie, this was just another way for Burnett to comment on the similarities between Stan's life at work and life at home. Now I feel like kind of a jackass. Wonderful film. Despite the pervading sense of despair, I'll also remember a lot of funny moments -- I think my favorite was when, with the camera looking straight-on at a car with a can of Schlitz on the hood, one of the passengers reaches right through where the windshield should be to grab it. I guess that moment has both despair and humor.

Another enticing bit from Milestone about the glacially-paced release of the Burnett box:

The production of Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection dvd box set is moving along nicely with a director's cut of My Brother's Wedding nearly complete and the commentary track with Charles Burnett and Film Society of Lincoln Center's Richard Pena recorded last week.

Milestone's listing for My Brother's Wedding (1983/recut 2007) now contains this nugget:

Coming in [sic] November 13, 2007 as part of "Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection"

The listed price is a very reasonable $39.95, which I will assume is for the set. The box should also contain the three Burnett shorts that Milestone has the rights to:

Several Friends (1969/21 mins)
The Horse (1973/13 mins)
When It Rains (1995/13 mins)

Throw in the previously mentioned commentary by Burnett and Richard Peña on Killer of Sheep and an already-loaded holiday season gains another essential release. God I hope this sells well enough to reward Milestone's dedication to this awesome project.

Killer of Sheep is up at Amazon for pre-order from New Yorker. Apparently is a double discer schedule for November 13 at RSP $39.95 (30% off at the moment).

For those of you in the NY/NJ area, The NJ Film Festival is showing Killer of Sheep as part of a triple feature:

El Sueno Americano (dir. Robert Moore, 14 mins.)
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 80 mins.)
Revolution '67 (Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno, 83 mins.)

The films are showing on Fri 9/7 - Sun 9/9 in Scott Hall on Rutgers' campus in New Brunswick. Admission is $10.