C major Sky

Mr. BURNETT: Well, I think it’s important, and having the foundation is really a key to one’s survival, in a way. And we had that kind of culture in may neighborhoods. You know, we had a porch life. We had people who were from the South, and everyone knew almost everyone on the block and a couple of blocks behind that, you know. But years later, you find that that’s absent now, in a certain sense. And then you sort of relate that to the problems in the neighborhood, you know.

And so, I remember myself walking home one day, and I had this really urge to get some greens - some mustard greens or collard greens or something like that. And when I was a kid, I hated that stuff, you know. And for some reason, I couldn’t live another moment without it. So I rushed to the store and bought some, didn’t know who to cook them. I just put them in the hot water and just cooked them and eat them as they were.

And I thought about that, and I said, well, where did that come from? And other things like whistling some tunes that my mother used to play a lot, you know. And I had to track them down and realized, oh this is - these melodies, this melody that’s swimming around your head are coming from. And then, when I did “Killer of Sheep,” there’s all these music I used and they created these images, helped me create these images.”

NPR interview between Charles Burnett and Michael Morton 2007

This film has been making it’s way into my mind again when I came across it ‘mis-shelved’ at a video store. One of the last video stores in the area.