From Street to Screen

"With From Street to Screen, Michael T. Martin and David C. Wall thoughtfully assemble some of the most compelling scholarship on Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep, providing an essential collection of essays for those who want to understand the cinematic impact of Burnett and his seminal American film. The engaging essays situate, historicize, and textually examine the deeply poetic and neo-realist rendering of Black life in Burnett's film while the inclusion of the screenplay, biography, and filmography lend this compendium to a range of pedagogical impulses."-Samantha N. Sheppard, Cornell University, author of Sporting Blackness: Race, Embodiment, and Critical Muscle Memory on Screen

"Michael Martin and David Wall bring long-awaited attention to a film that reflects the pioneering spirit of L.A Rebellion filmmakers. Their edited collection gathers a series of texts that inform the poetic politics of Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep, a unique film to date about how to survive in 1970's Watts. A historical and filmic landmark, Killer of Sheep captures the ghetto and its residents in beautiful black and white cinematography."-Delphine Letort, author of The Spike Lee Brand: A Study of Documentary Filmmaking

"A masterpiece of American cinema, Killer of Sheep finally receives a much-deserved sustained study of its form, style, and fascinating production history. From Street to Screen brings together rich contextualizing essays, original readings, an in-depth interview with director Charles Burnett, and the film's original screenplay. A comprehensive sourcebook, this volume is an indispensable companion to the film and to independent Black cinema more generally."-Allyson Nadia Field, University of Chicago, author of Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film and the Possibility of Black Modernity.