Blast From the Past

Congratulations to tiny, enterprising, New Jersey-based specialty distributor Milestone Films, which has scored a major success by giving the first, very belated theatrical release to Charles Burnett’s legendary Killer of Sheep. Never before distributed because of music-rights issues, this poetic Watts slice-of-life from 1977, which garned rave reviews, set a house record of $22,774 last weekend at the IFC Center, selling $8,519 worth of tickets on Sunday alone. There are more details on the phenomenon at Indie Wire, and the Los Angeles Times has a long piece on the movie’s fascinating history. The movie opens there this weekend.