Killer of Sheep

Rare French poster for legendary Charles Burnett film, which was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for The National Film Registry in 1990 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". This lyrical, landmark Black Independent film - set and primarily shot in Los Angeles during 1972-1973 - was Burnett's thesis film at UCLA in 1977 and had its premiere at NYC's Whitney Museum the following year.  Over the following years, the film was successfully screened at international film festivals, to great acclaim. Unfortunately, music rights issues kept the film from any significant commercial distribution for decades, and it took 30 years for the clearances to be covered. The film was restored and properly released in 2007.  ANY advertising material prior to that 2007 release is extremely rare, and it is unclear whether this very limited 1982 French release (3 years after its French film festival premiere) was legal or if the soundtrack had been altered. The poster design is by "Lynch Guillotin"