Cultivate Cinema Circle

Bless Their Little Hearts by Billy Woodberry

July 20, 2017, 7:30pm - July 20, 2017, 9:00pm

"Forms, with Killer of Sheep, a landmark diptych about work as the crucible of the American character either in its abundance or its absence." - Jim Ridley, Village Voice Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center as we celebrate the work of Charles Burnett. Our second selection is a one-night screening of Bless Their Little Hearts [1984], written by Burnett and directed by Billy Woodberry. The film was named to the National Registry of the Library of Congress in 2013. Ticket Information: $8 general, $6 students & seniors, $5 members Complete event details can be found at the link: cultivatecinemacircle.com/bless-their-little-hearts/ Synopsis courtesy of the film’s website: Bless Their Little Hearts, a landmark of American independent cinema will open Wednesday, May 17 for exclusive theatrical engagements at IFC Center. Named to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress, the films represent a high-water mark from the “L.A. Rebellion,” a group of African-American filmmakers who came out of UCLA in the 1960s-1980s that also included Haile Gerima (Sankofa) and Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust). Director Billy Woodberry will appear in person for post-screening Q&As on the opening night of the engagement. Billy Woodberry’s Bless Their Little Hearts (1983), written and shot by Burnett and starring Killer of Sheep’s Kaycee Moore, chronicles the devastating toll that joblessness takes on a married couple and their children. Added to the National Film Registry in 2013, “Part of the vibrant New Wave of independent African-American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, Billy Woodberry became a key figure in the movement known as the L.A. Rebellion. Woodberry crafted his UCLA thesis film, “Bless Their Little Hearts,” which was theatrically released in 1984. The film features a script and cinematography by Charles Burnett. This spare, emotionally resonant portrait of family life during times of struggle blends grinding, daily-life sadness with scenes of deft humor. Jim Ridley of the “Village Voice” aptly summed up the film’s understated-but- real virtues: “Its poetry lies in the exaltation of ordinary detail.”

Killer of Sheep by Charles Burnett

July 18, 2017, 7:30pm - July 18, 2017, 9:00pm

"Killer of Sheep, largely hidden from view for three decades, is an American masterpiece, independent to the bone." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times Please join Cultivate Cinema Circle and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center as we celebrate the work of Charles Burnett. First up is a one-night screening of the 40th anniversary restoration of Killer of Sheep [1978]. Ticket Information: $8 general, $6 students & seniors, $5 members Complete event details can be found here: cultivatecinemacircle.com/killer-of-sheep/ Synopsis courtesy of the film’s website: Writer/Director Charles Burnett submitted his first feature, Killer of Sheep, as his thesis for his MFA in film at UCLA. The film was shot on location near his family’s home in Watts in a series of weekends on a shoestring budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. With a mostly amateur cast (consisting of Burnett’s friends and acquaintances), much handheld camera work, episodic narrative and gritty documentary-style cinematography, Killer of Sheep has been compared by film critics and scholars to Italian neorealist films like Vittorio De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief and Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan. However, Burnett cites Basil Wright’s Song of Ceylon and Night Mail and Jean Renoir’s The Southerner as his main influences. In 1981, Killer of Sheep received the Critic’s Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1990, the Library of Congress declared it a national treasure and placed it among the first 50 films entered in the National Film Registry for its historical significance. In 2002, the National Society of Film Critics selected the film as one of the 100 Essential Films of all time.