KEVIN WILLMOTT FILM FESTIVAL - FEB. 18-21 2025 LAWRENCE, KS

A four-day celebration (well, technically three days, since a snowstorm killed the 18th - forcing a double-feature for the kick-off on the 19th) of Mr. Willmott, honoring his retirement from KU - but not his retirement from projects with a new film scheduled to shoot this Spring and various scripts in development. KU Film & Media Studies Department & Liberty Hall gave him a warm Farewell metaphorically, though the theatre itself was chilly due to the single-digit temperature outside.

The Kevin Willmott Film Festival consisted of four features - DESTINATION: PLANET NEGRO, THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN, JAYHAWKERS and C.S.A. - THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, with special guests in post-screening talks and on the last night, tribute videos sent in by many friends & colleagues who couldn't make it in person.

I was only able to make it to two of the showings, T.O.G.I. & C.S.A. - though I'm fortunate enough to have his work within arms reach on the DVD shelves. And despite the winter climate, it proved to be well-timed as a healing tonic in the opening days of the Musk/Trump Regime.

As a public service, here's audio from both of those screenings:

 

THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN Aftertalk w/Willmott, actors Wes Studi & Laura Kirk and writer Tom Carmody, Moderated by Jancita Warrington, Executive Director on Native-American Affairs, State of KS.

Of note: it had recently been announced that Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence had come under the thumb of DOGE, with 30% of its staff being 'retired' At 22:08, you'll hear former Kickapoo Nation chairperson Steve Cadue referring to that.

C.S.A.'s screening kicked off with KU Film & Media Studies Interim Chairperson Anna Neill giving the audience a preview of proclamation from the City of Lawrence declaring March 4, 2025 Kevin Willmott Day!

  

Following that, Dr. Novotny Lawrence, KU alumnus & associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies and the Director of the Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University - Bloomington, came to introduce the film...

  

... and joined Willmott in a spirited aftertalk.

 

 

CHEAP BASTARD FILMWORKS - New Super-8 projects

Well, kinda 'new'; decided it was the time to find out what was on those rolls of unprocessed Super-8 that had been sitting around for years on end - early in the 2000s, I won a eBay auction of a lot of Ektachrome 160-G film cheap and promptly discovered the reason for that was that it was expired film (date on the boxes is 'DEC 79' and a type where one of the chemical ingredients used for developing was becoming very scarce) - and expensive to process, so 4 rolls sat in storage, along with a couple rolls of Tri-X, having forgotten exactly when & what I shot on them.

After some research, I decided to use Negativeland, a lab in Ridgewood, NY that could process it (as B/W negative; best option to get an image) & scan it, along w/a print of my 16mm film-school project to be scanned.

THE RESULTS:

The Super-8 was questionable - but it turned out Good; only one roll had serious deterioration, and even managed to pull an image from that - has the feel of footage shot over a century ago... 

 

Even better, it turns out that I shot these during production of THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN (in Wichita and Cottonwood Falls, KS) and the Traci Lords family comedy AU, PAIR KS [aka THE SOCCER NANNY] in Lindsborg, KS - I had completely forgotten that I brought the Super-8 with me.

The 16mm [empty, try another] looks pretty good, a 2K scan of a print. My interest in oblique metaphoring and love of musical minimalism probably has roots here - literally done with no money, which is why the credits were originally done orally (Director's Answer™® - "It's a Truffaut homage").

  

Thanks again to Ben Kufrin, Jon Knoll, Tracy Holliway-Wiggins, Jane Brockman and everyone else who lent a hand.

More personal excavation to come? Perhaps...