Film festival to pay tribute to Kevin Willmott’s vision


LAWRENCE — Now that he’s won an Oscar and taken professor emeritus status, the University of Kansas Department of Film & Media Studies is bidding favorite son Kevin Willmott farewell with a four-night film festival next month.

Each of the four films — made between 2004 and 2014 — was shot in and around the Lawrence area while Willmott was teaching at KU. 

Like all his films, they reflect Willmott’s concern for racial and social justice.

“The best choice I've made in my life was choosing this,” Willmott said. “Not following the path of others, not following what you were supposed to do. You're not supposed to write the stuff that I write. You're not supposed to make the movies I make. And because I did, and because I chose to follow my own mind and conscience and heart, I created a niche for myself. That's why I was able to live in Lawrence, and now when you want me, you have to come find me.”

Willmott certainly did it the hard way. He said he worked on his first film, 1999’s “Ninth Street,” with tales inspired by his Junction City upbringing, for nine years, starting as a film student.

“It took me three years to make ‘C.S.A.’ It took me about three years make ‘Destination.’ And the best thing about staying in Lawrence and working at KU was that I was able to develop my own community,” Willmott said.

“In film, the adage is that time is money. When you have money, you can make a movie fairly quickly. In six months you can have it shot, edited, everything. But when you don't have money, it takes a lot of time. So I learned early on ... these projects were going to take a long time, and I didn't allow that to frustrate me.

“I had a base of support. It gave me access to equipment, access to students. So I was just making movies and showing students how to make movies.

“For me, it was like a form of activism in a way, because students are looking to know how to do it, and, ‘How do you get from Kansas to Hollywood? How do you get from Kansas to Sundance?’ So I was just showing them how to do that. That's how I got tenure, by doing what I've always done.”

Willmott has continued to work as hard as the title figure of his production company, Hod Carrier Films.

“I just finished writing a remake of the old John Wayne movie ‘The Cowboys,’” Willmott said. “I have another one that I'm about to begin called ‘The Conjure-Man Dies,’ which is based on one of the first mystery novels written by an African American, during the Harlem Renaissance. And I'm about to begin a TV show that I've helped create called ‘Hip-Hop Cop’ — the next adventure of Ron Stallworth,” hero of 2018’s Oscar winner, “BlacKkKlansman.”

His father worked as a hod carrier, Willmott said, and passed a strong work ethic down to his sons.

“It's kind of what drove us,” he said. “You find the thing you love, and you're not working. You find friends, you build a community of people who understand what you're trying to do, and it's just a beautiful thing.”

The Kevin Willmott Film Festival

 The festival at Lawrence's Liberty Hall will present:

Willmott and/or his special guests, including actors from the films, will introduce and talk after each film showing.

For more information, including a link to buy tickets, visit the film festival website.

Wed, 01/29/2025

author

Rick Hellman

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Rick Hellman

KU News Service

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