Bless Their Little Hearts

The lone narrative feature from director Billy Woodberry, Bless Their Little Hearts exemplifies the rigorous commitment to collaborative art-making that defined the L.A. Rebellion’s collective practice—in this case, a collaboration between Woodberry and Charles Burnett, who scripted and lensed the film, and facilitated the casting of friends and family members who had previously acted in Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and My Brother’s Wedding. Woodberry’s film unfolds in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, several years after the 1969 Watts riots; its protagonist, Charlie Banks (Nate Hardman), is unemployed and unable to financially support his wife (Kaycee Moore) and their three children. Training a keen eye on the psychological ravages of underemployment and economic discrimination—and sensitively attending to the intimate dynamics of a marriage in crisis—Woodberry and Burnett’s extraordinary shared vision endures as a paradigmatic masterpiece of poetic neorealism, more than 40 years after its Cannes Critics’ Week premiere.

35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.