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Bless Their Little Hearts  /  Please, Don't Bury Me Alive!

Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
December 11, 2015 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Packard Humanities Institute.

Bless Their Little Hearts  (1984)


Named to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2013, Billy Woodberry’s magnificent feature represents the closure and pinnacle of a neorealist strand within the “L.A. Rebellion” school of Black filmmakers.  Chronicling the psychological and spiritual toll experienced by a family in the throes of economic hardship and underemployment—and seeking a dignified way to live and be happy—the film also constitutes a felicitous creative collaboration between Woodberry and screenwriter-cinematographer Charles Burnett.

35mm, b/w, 84 min.  Producer: Billy Woodberry.  Director: Billy Woodberry.  Screenwriter: Charles Burnett.  Cinematographer: Charles Burnett.  Editor: Billy Woodberry.  With: Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore, Angela Burnett, Ronald Burnett, Kimberly Burnett.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United State (UC MEXUS).

Please, Don't Bury Me Alive!  (1977)


Efraín Gutiérrez’ landmark independent feature, recently added to the National Film Registry, offers an in-depth look at 1970’s-era South Texas Chicano culture, as its central character questions his place in a society that undervalues Latinos, so many of whom have been killed in the Vietnam War.  A historic, influential hit in regional theaters, the film was long thought lost before its restoration at UCLA.

35mm, color, 81 min.  Production: Chicano Arts Enterprises.  Producer: Efraín Gutiérrez.  Director: Efraín Gutiérrez.  Screenwriter: Sabino Garza.  Cinematographer: David Peña.  Editor: Jack Landman.  With: Efraín Gutiérrez, Josefina Paz, David Moss, Abel Franco, Oscar Escamilla.

Part of: 
Archive Treasures: 50th Anniversary Celebration