Screen/Society--AMI Showcase--"Iré a Santiago" (Sara Gómez, 1964)+"Killer of Sheep" (Charles Burnett, 1977) + discussion

Film Screening: "Iré a Santiago"+"Killer of Sheep". // "Iré a Santiago"/"I will go to Santiago" (Sara Gómez, 1964, 14 min, Cuba, in Spanish w/ subtitles, B&W, DVD). A community advocate and the first female Cuban filmmaker in the Cuban Film Institute (ICAIC), Sara Gómez captured the culture and traditions of Afro-Cuban life. This black-and-white film is a loving portrait of Santiago de Cuba and its people - the product of an earthy mix of black and criollo cultures. The film uses historical images portraying the end of the 18th century when Haitian slave owners fled with their slaves to Cuba after the Haitian Revolution. // "Killer of Sheep" (Charles Burnett, 1977, 83 min, USA, in English, B&W, Digital). Charles Burnett's films focus on everyday life in black communities, combining incredibly lyrical elements with a starkly neo-realist, documentary-style approach that chronicles the unfolding story with depth and riveting simplicity. KILLER OF SHEEP was one of the first 50 films to be selected for the Library of Congress's National Film Registry and was chosen by the National Society of Film Critics as one of the 100 Essential Films. The film examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life - sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor.