A brand new restoration of this 1961 obscurity.
Emerging from the void, a mysterious drifter named Gaunt wanders the upstate countryside in a daze with only his bible for company. But after happening upon the murder of a local maid, Gaunt soon finds himself framed for the attack. Forced to flee deeper into the woods with the only witness to the crime, the maid’s young deaf mute son, the pair forge a complex bond that culminates in one of cinema’s most memorable and unclassifiable endings.
A “lost” marvel of independent filmmaking, TIME OF THE HEATHEN is set in the immediate shadow of the atomic bomb, yet narrativized through the groundbreaking aesthetics and shifting racial politics of the 1960s.
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive and Lightbox Film Center, University of the Arts at Illuminate Hollywood laboratory, in collaboration with Corpus Fluxus and Audio Mechanics from the 35mm picture, soundtrack negative and the original ¼” stereo master recording of Lejaren Hiller’s score. Funding provided by Ron and Suzanne Naples.