Billy Woodberry’s “Bless Their Little Hearts”, written and shot by Charles Burnett and starring Kaycee Moore (also co-straring in “Killer Of Sheep”), chronicles the devastating toll that unemployment takes on a married couple and their children. Part of the vibrant New Wave of independent African American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, Billy Woodberry became a key figure in the cinematic movement known as the “L.A. Rebellion”. This spare, emotionally resonant portrait of family life during times of struggle blends grinding, daily-life sadness with scenes of deft humor. The film was added to the National Film Registry in 2013.
Billy Woodberry
Born in Dallas, Texas, Billy Woodberry is an independent filmmaker who has taught at the School of Film / Video and the School of Art at the California Institute of the Arts since 1989. His feature film “Bless Their Little Hearts” (1984) is an essential work of Los Angeles cinema, informed by Woodberry’s familiarity with Italian neo-realism and the work of filmmakers in Cuba, Brazil, India and Africa. It won the Interfilm ecumenical jury award at the Berlin Film Festival and was added to the Library of Congress' 2013 National Registry of Films.
