Killer of Sheep

CTL-E-6169 · Work · film · 1977 (thesis) / premiered 1978; National Film Registry 1990

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07371 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6169.

Killer of Sheep is a black-and-white American feature written and directed by Charles Burnett, centered on Stan, a Watts slaughterhouse worker whose exhausting job leaves him struggling to provide for his family and to hold onto a dignified life at home. The Museum of Modern Art, which programs the film as a 1977 work of eighty minutes, notes that Burnett made it as his thesis film at UCLA, using school equipment and salvaged 16mm film stock, and that its fragmented, spontaneous scenes offered an authentic portrayal of African American life radically different from the Blaxploitation films of its time. Reference accounts date the shooting primarily to 1972 and 1973, with the completed film submitted as Burnett's Master of Fine Arts thesis in 1977 and premiered at the Whitney Museum of American Art on November 14, 1978 — the source of its alternating 1977 and 1978 datings. Unlicensed music long kept it from general release; it circulated in 16mm until a UCLA restoration and cleared rights brought a wide release in 2007. The Library of Congress lists the film, under release year 1977, as selected for the National Film Registry in 1990.

The record

• Also known as: Killer of Sheep (1977), Killer of Sheep (1978)

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 5 — 747 Program, Wave 12; fifth Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Killer of Sheep entity or alias in the live graph (3,843 entities), and no Charles Burnett entity in the live graph — Burnett is staged in this same Wave 5 packet as CTL-E-6197 (packet-internal endpoint, see relationships). ID CTL-E-6169 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 4 scan-tail reserve banked by Scan Tail Wave 4, corpus-gap-candidates ranked #2096. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Landmark of Black independent cinema and the L.A. Rebellion: a Black filmmaker's portrait of working-class Black life in Watts, preserved in the National Film Registry. Vital status: WORK — not applicable as a life status; the film survives, was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and received a general release in 2007 after music rights were cleared (Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — Dates and figures (accessed 2026-10-16): shooting primarily 1972–1973 and budget under $10,000 (Wikipedia); running time 80 minutes (MoMA; Wikipedia/BBFC listing); National Film Registry induction 1990 under release year 1977 (Library of Congress complete listing). DATE FRAMING SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: the film is dated 1977 as a completed UCLA thesis (MoMA; LOC) and 1978 by its November 14, 1978 Whitney premiere (Wikipedia) — both framings are retained. MEDIA: photo HELD (HELD — candidate: the film's 2007 re-release theatrical poster, or a production still of Stan at the slaughterhouse as carried on the MoMA event page; NO license is claimed — PHOTO-001 verification deferred. — named candidate only; file-level rights verification per CTL-PHOTO-001 still required; no license claimed); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6169-killer-of-sheep.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short or verified-rights archival video staged); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (not a place record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Work records carry no map slot; the film's Watts, Los Angeles setting is carried in the description, not as a ) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• Charles Burnett — authored by
  Killer of Sheep, staged in this packet as CTL-E-6169 (Work), was written and directed by Charles Burnett: the Academy records that Burnett 'wrote, directed, produced, photographed and edited his first feature film, Killer of Sheep, in 1977.' Endpoint is packet-internal (companion batch record), per brief. authored_by runs Work -> Person in schema.json.

Sources

• Museum of Modern Art, Killer of Sheep (1977) event page (accessed 2026-10-16) — Killer of Sheep, 1977, USA, written and directed by Charles Burnett, 80 minutes, 35mm listing; made as his thesis film at UCLA using school equipment and salvaged 16mm stock; portrayal of African American life distinct from Blaxploitation films of the time — https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5905 (primary source · build store)
• Library of Congress, Complete National Film Registry Listing (accessed 2026-10-16) — Killer of Sheep listed with year of release 1977 and year inducted into the National Film Registry 1990 — https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing (primary source · build store)
• Wikipedia, Killer of Sheep (accessed 2026-10-16) — shot primarily in 1972 and 1973; submitted to UCLA in 1977 as MFA thesis; premiered at the Whitney Museum November 14, 1978; music rights licensed in 2007 after UCLA restoration, followed by a 200+ city release — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_of_Sheep (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6169 · Combined Graph record U-07371 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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