Though its film stock had nearly turned to vinegar by the time UCLA stepped in with a timely restoration, Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep is of a vintage that only gets better with age. Its neorealist approach to the life of a neighborhood is rich, but the surprise is that it's also as fresh as the day it was made 30 years ago. Milestone Film and Video - the company that secured the music rights for the film (with the help of Steven Soderbergh) and encouraged the UCLA restoration of the work, is releasing it theatrically this spring and on DVD along with My Brother's Wedding (1983) this fall.

Susan Gerhard spoke with Burnett over the phone from Los Angeles, a few weeks before Killer of Sheep itself celebrated a milestone with the help of a film company that goes by the same name.

Killer of Sheep is now available on DVD, at long last.

By Jay Kuehner

The latest issue of Sight and Sound is devoted to the state of American independent cinema and the apparent dearth of genuine US indie talent. While a host of usual suspects is nominated to make or break the argument, there is no mention of Julia Loktev, the Russian-born but US-bred filmmaker whose work to date has included audio and video art installation pieces, as well as the prize-winning documentary Moment of Impact (1998), which deals with the quotidian aftermath of her father's debilitating car accident.

Loktev's first feature length film Day Night Day Night, is now out on DVD.

By Michelle Devereaux

Celebrated French auteur Francis Veber is nothing if not a gentleman-perhaps even to a fault. The writer and director of films like The Dinner Game, The Closet, and Le Jaguar (he also wrote the screenplay to La Cage Aux Folles) is so amenable, in fact, he'll even let you call him by the wrong name. In an interview the 69-year-old Veber gave to a radio station the same day he talked to GreenCine, a journalist kept calling him "Francois." But Veber didn't correct him once-and even referred to himself in a promo by using the incorrect name...

La doublure (The Valet) is now out on DVD.

Interviewed By Jonathan Marlow
[At the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival]

Her first short film was selected for International Critics Week at Cannes. She received an Academy Award for her third short. She was awarded the Jury Prize at Cannes for her first feature and later dominated the BAFTAs in Scotland (winning the Best Director, Film, Screenplay, Actress and Actor awards). Such a sequence of achievements is essentially unheard of, admittedly, but Andrea Arnold is not your average filmmaker.

Jonathan Marlow Spoke with Arnold about her films. Her first feature Red Road, is now out on DVD.