Bleak Week

Killer of Sheep

Thursday, June 11, 2026 | 7:30pm

Little Theatre 1 (240 East Ave.)
Doors open at 7:00pm

Standard ticket prices
Tickets available online in advance, at our box office during open hours, or at the door (if tickets remain).

4K RESTORATION | Charles Burnett’s cinematic masterpiece Killer of Sheep is one of the crown jewels of the Black indie filmmaking movement known as the L.A. Rebellion. The film evokes the everyday trials, fragile pleasures, and tenacious humor of blue-collar African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1970s.

Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a slaughterhouse worker, is battling exhaustion and disconnect from his wife, his children, and himself. 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.

Bleak Week

Presented in partnership with the American Cinematheque, ‘Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair’ is an annual film festival showcasing some of the greatest works of cinema from across the globe that venture into the darkest sides of humanity and the bleakest points in human history. Browse films in this series