Although there are characters referred to as “Gene,” “Dian,” “Oscar,” “Ernie Cox,” “Scooter,” “Smoke,” “Jerry,” “Silbo” and “Truman Doyle” in the film, the onscreen credits do not indicate which actors played those roles. The songs “Shake a Hand” and “It’s All Your Fault Baby” are mistitled in the credits as “Shake Hands” and “Its Your Fault Baby,” respectively.
       According to production notes in AMPAS library files and articles in the 30 Mar 2007 NYT and the 6 Apr 2007 LAT, writer-director-producer Charles Burnett received a $3,000 Louis B. Mayer grant to help fund Killer of Sheep, which was his masters thesis project while matriculating at what was then known as the Department of Motion Pictures, Television and Radio at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Burnett paid the remainder of the $10,000 production costs himself. While the primarily amateur cast included his niece, Angela Burnett, as “Angie,” Burnett hired an industry professional, Vietnam veteran Henry Gayle Sanders, to play “Stan” at the last minute when the actor originally chosen for the role was not paroled in time to participate in the film. Starting in the early 1970s and completing the picture in 1977, Burnett shot the bulk of the film over several weekends on location in the Watts district of Los Angeles, CA, and filmed Stan’s workplace scenes at a slaughterhouse in Solano, near San Francisco, CA. The director envisioned Luis Russell’s “Sad Lover Blues” playing over the scene in which Stan and his wife dance, but his only copy of the record broke. When he could not find a replacement, Burnett used Dinah Washington’s rendition of “This Bitter Earth” instead.
       According to the 14 Nov 1978 NYT, the 1 Apr 2007 LAT, and production notes, following its lone opening engagement on 14 Nov 1978 at the Whitney Museum in New York City, Killer of Sheep became hard to find outside of the occasional film festival and the original 16mm print fell into disrepair. In 2000, the UCLA Film & Television Archive received a grant from the Sundance Institute to restore eight films, including Killer of Sheep. Preservationist Ross Lipman was so impressed with the film after its upgraded blow up to 35mm, that he contacted Dennis Doros at Milestone Film & Video about distributing it. However, since Burnett had never intended his student film to be released theatrically, he had not secured the necessary music rights. Doros could not afford the $142,000 in music licensing fees until director Steven Soderbergh donated $75,000 to complete the project, reported the 25 Mar 2007 NYT and the 11 Nov 2007 LAT. After spending six years negotiating music rights, Doros successfully resolved all the issues except one: although Dinah Washington’s version of “Unforgettable” plays over the closing credits in the original 16mm film, the owner of the song’s publishing rights refused to allow its use in the rereleased film, noted the 21 Jan 2008 LAT. Instead, Washington’s “This Bitter Earth,” is heard again at the end of the film.
       Milestone reissued Killer of Sheep on 30 Mar 1007 at the IFC Center in New York City and on 6 Apr 2007 at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles, as announced in the 25 Mar 2007 NYT, the 1 Apr 2007 LAT and the 9 Apr 2007 Nation.
       According to production notes and the 1 Apr 2007 LAT, Killer of Sheep won the 1981 Critics’ Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1990, the Library of Congress selected it as one of the first fifty culturally significant films to be preserved by the National Film Registry, and in 2002, the National Society of Film Critics counted it among the one hundred essential films of all time.
       The 14 Nov 1978 NYT found that “the [main] character’s estrangement from his surroundings overlaps too conveniently with the director’s arty detachment from his material” when it was first released. However, since its 2007 reissue, reviews have been rapturous. On 30 Mar 2007, NYT called the film “an American masterpiece, independent to the bone,” while the 6 Apr 2007 LAT suggested that the movie escapes looking dated because “the naturalness and simplicity with which it unfolds gives it the texture of a story told from the inside.”
      After the end credits, the following text appears: “Thanks to: Earl’s Columbia Liquor Store; Solano Meat Co.; And a special thanks to the Louis B. Mayer Foundation.”