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.

 

 

More CSA screenings - March, April, June

Additional screens it opens in March, April and a couple of June dates. Note the opening in Tucson, AZ has been changed from 3/10 to 3/24.

Thanks to Kevin McKinney ("Dishonest Abe") for the update.

03/17/ Orpheum/ Madison, WI

03/17/ Real Artways/ Hartford, CT

03/17/ Anthony Wayne/ Wayne, PA

03/17/ Ballantyne/ Charlotte, NC

03/17/ Galaxy/ Cary, NC

03/17/ Canal Place/ New Orleans, LA

03/17/ Belcourt/ Nashville, TN

03/17/ Palm/ San Luis Obispo, CA

03/17/ Camera 12/ San Jose, CA

03/17/ Nickelodeon/ Santa Cruz, CA

03/17/ Minor/ Arcata, CA

03/17/ Hillcrest/ San Diego, CA

03/17/ Crossroads/ Boulder, CO

03/17/ Metro/ Seattle, WA

03/24/ Main Art/ Detroit, MI

03/24/ Lagoon/ Minneapolis, MN

03/24/ Cable Car/ Providence, RI

03/24/ Loft/ Tucson, AZ

03/31/ Altamonte/ Orlando/Altamonte Springs, FL

03/31/ Charles/ Baltimore, MD

03/31/ Trolley Square/ Salt Lake City, UT

04/05/ Emelin/ Mamaroneck, NY

04/14/ Augusta Historic Theatre/ Augusta, KS

04/28/ Athena/ Athens, OH

06/07/ Ft. Kirby Ctr for Perf Arts/ Wilkes Barre, PA

06/09/ Mary Ross Center/ Lincoln, NE

More CSA stuff and tying some loose ends...

Dennis at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule gave a nice shout-out to C.S.A. (which opened on a few more screens this Friday and will be opening on more throughout March), as well as to this blog. For those who get directed here, looking for more info on the film and Kevin, here's an earlier post from October '05 which has links to several meaty interviews with Mr. Wilmott about his work. If you're looking for dates and theaters where CSA will be playing, look below at the previous posting.

And if this is your first time at the blog, hi! Hope you come back from time to time.

Over at the ThoughAGlass site, there are a few pictures taken at the NYC premiere.

The last disc in THE MONKEES Season 2 set has finally arrived, so I'll probably have my overview up in a few days... that'll do it for TV season set watching for awhile - well, at least from Netflix. I've just started on NOWHERE MAN and that might finish up before the month is up.

I mentioned quite awhile back that there appeared to be more film work on the horizon... the date is getting closer for production to start on a feature made at the University of Missouri-Columbia under the aegis of PROJECT: IT (I think that it's actually I.T., but I'm not a stickler) Production is scheduled to start on April 1 and will shoot the entire month, so the updates will more than likely dry up during April... maybe. I start ping-ponging back and forth throughout March for meetings and other business. It'll be directed by Chip Gubera, who did the zombie horror musical/political satire SONG OF THE DEAD.

That means that I'll be finishing up some article for the upcoming issue of Micro-Film, which will have features on C.S.A. and on fellow Kansas filmmaker Steve Balderson, whose FIRECRACKER will be available on DVD in May. So it's going to be a pretty busy Spring..

I also just upgraded my home site with selections from the print zine MIMEZINE and some of my short films (including the recent LENEXA) are now online at the Cheap Bastard Filmworks page. So if you're curious, click on over.

C.S.A. Screening Dates

Hopefully, one of these theatres will be near where you live:

2/15 IFC Center / New York / NY

2/24 Screenland/ Kansas City/ MO

2/24 Village Arts / Chicago / IL

2/24 Coolidge Corner / Boston / MA

2/24 Harris / Pittsburgh / PA

2/24 Academy / Pasadena / CA

2/24 Cinema Palme d'Or / Palm Springs / CA

2/24 Roxie / San Francisco / CA

3/03 Nickelodeon / Santa Cruz / CA

3/07 Theatre N at Nemours / Scranton /PA

3/07 Scranton Community Center / Wilmington /DE

3/07 Market Arcade Film & Arts / Buffalo / NY

3/07 Cinema Paradiso / Ft. Lauderdale / FL

3/07 Palm / San Luis Obispo / CA

3/10 Liberty Hall / Lawrence / KS

3/10 Orpheum / Madison / WI

3/10 UICA / Grand Rapids / MI

3/10 Little Rochester / NY

3/10 Loft / Tucson /AZ

3/10 Starz / Denver /CO

3/17 Real Artways / Hartford / CT

3/17 Belcourt / Nashville /TN

3/17 Minor / Arcata /CA

3/30 Art Cinema / Salina / KS

5/02 Cinema 320 / Worchester / MA

TV or not-TV?

CSA will be opening in KC, MO and Pasdena, CA on Feb. 24th.

Watched OPEN HOUSE, the "real-estate musical" from director/Slamdance founder Dan Mirvish... I'm not normally a fan of musicals, but the off-kilter ones I tend to gravitate to (even to the point of working on one...) I have to say that in this particular case, I liked the concept and the performances (from Sally Kellerman, Kellie Martin, Ann Magnunsun, James Duval and Jerry Doyle) more than I liked the actual songs, which had some clever word-play but suffered from anemic arrangement - but it's definitely worth a look.

How successful is a cross-over from movies to television? Not very, unless you have some involvement with the characters and situations involved, as SERENITY proved in its theatrical release last year. Months of hype and buzz abruptly crashed and burned when it was presented to the general public. Watching it on DVD at home, it was pretty obvious why... if you were a follower of the show, FIREFLY, then SERENITY is a pretty good capper to that program, since you already knew everyone and how they related to one another. Coming into it cold, as a co-worker did to whom I lent SERENITY to - she knew about FIREFLY, but had never seen it - and one is less than amused and entertained.

After all, there has to be some ground retread for the benefit of newcomers to the party, who have no clue of what is going on, but the converse of that is alienating the fan base, who has to sit through boring introductions of characters before getting to the meat of the action. Which leads to the other thing about such projects; they seem to be less cinematically inspired, but rather pumped up 2 hour episodes, with added production value, sex and blood. The list of these abortions is long - most of the STAR TREK films, The X-FILES movie, THE NUDE BOMB (an attempt to resurrect GET SMART)... and for the most part, they're not very profitable, except in the cases of the STAR TREK films... and possibly THE NAKED GUN series.

The one's that do succeed artistically are the ones that are tied to their television predesessors and that attempt to actually do something out of the ordinary - they're not entirely successful as stand-alone films, but in context with the shows they spring from, they're masterpieces - in my view that's David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS - FIRE WALK WITH ME and Bob Rafelson's HEAD.

SERENITY doesn't quite make that short list - it's not an outright failure when in context with the show (and I suspect that if people watch FIREFLY in its entirety, then the movie, SERENITY will be a more satisfying experience), but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table either.

Stirrings....

Some more CSA news... IFC Films should hopefully be releasing CSA into the larger arthouse markets during Feb. (AKA Black History Month -- it somehow seems a natural fit rather than BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2) It's currently scheduled to open Feb 15th at the IFC Center in NYC, no other dates/places are on the schedule as of yet... keep checking the IFC Films site.

If you're near the Topeka area, then you have another opportunity to see the film at Washburn University:

What if the South had won the war? Please join us (and announce to
classes, friends and family) for a screening of Kevin Willmott's
Confederate State of America (a hit at Sundance, and soon to be in general
release). This celebration of Kansas Day will take place on January 27,
2006, 7:00 p.m., Henderson 100. Commentary by Dr. Tom Prasch, History
chair, and Q & A with CSA director Kevin Willmott will follow the film, as
well as refreshments.

Owen Gleiberman called CSA, "Mind-bending! Scandalous, fearless and
hilarious." Kevin Willmott has recreated the USA as though the South has
won the Civil War, all seen through the eyes of a documentary film crew
sent from Great Britain to the Confederate States of America in the late
20th century. What do they find out? Please come and see.

Thanks,

Tom Averill
for the Center for Kansas Studies

I've been sick this past weekend, so it's been a good opportunity to catch up on DVD watching, the majority as of late, being dominated by TV season sets: am almost halfway through THE MONKEES Season 2 (for some reason, Netflix has the shows in hubs near the coasts rather than in the midwest, so they're taking the longest to get through); have started the TWILIGHT ZONE, 80's version (which had some outstanding episodes, and the set has some invaluable commentary tracks by Harlan Ellison) - don't confuse it with the misguided version with Forest Whitaker as Rod Serling; and surprisingly, SLEDGE HAMMER!, a show I remember fondly from the 80's, which is much funnier now, knowing a good portion of the films/shows they're parodying... all definitely recommended. After these, I'm taking a break from TV sets for awhile - the latest acquistion is NOWHERE MAN, a well-regarded show from the fledgling beginnings of UPN Network. The set is a staggering 9-disc collection, packed with extras... so it'll be awhile before tackling that monster.

Tried reading Chuck Palahniuk's HAUNTED... despite loving FIGHT CLUB and having read most of his other novels like CHOKE, INVISIBLE MONSTERS and LULLABY, I get the distinct feeling that I'm basically reading the same novel over and over again, just with slightly different characters and situations. It might be too much to call Palahniuk the 'Hanna-Barbara' of alternative lit, but HAUNTED definitely pushed me towards that concept...

Not a lot about films seen in the theater recently, you'll notice... not a lot of the interesting films tend to stick around in Topeka for long, and if it's between driving a half-hour/hour to either Lawrence or KC to see something, or scrounging in the pool of DVD's, it's a no-brainer as to which option I tend to lean towards.

Pre-Winter Ennui

Not a wildly exciting time at the moment... having rested & recuperated from the film and Thanksgiving holiday, it's time to get back to work... in this case, means finishing up paperwork for REST E-Z, finishing a scanning project for Film Score Monthly (which will publish it's final print issue this month, but will continue on the Net in an online form... as well as offering new CD releases every month), and touching up some pieces for the Micro-Film website, which will have new content up very soon.

I direct your attention to John Kenneth Muir's blog link over to the right... he has a most insightful post on MEDIUM which is worth your time. And it saves me from making my own lengthy post on the show, since he hit a lot of the points that I was planning to make. Ah, synchronicity...

Dennis of "Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule" blog pointed out that Entertainment Weekly's Nov. 25th issue (the one with Jocquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon on the cover) ran a review of C.S.A., along with an interview with Kevin Wilmott. The review is favorable and the interview reveals that C.S.A. should be in larger markets in Feb. '06.

Keep your eyes peeled; however, I suspect that C.S.A. will end up finding its audience on DVD. I do know that a couple of commentaries have already been recorded for the release, and I think that the disc will have some tasty extras included.

More C.S.A.

At this point in time, you probably won't get to see the film until early 2006, probably in time for Black History Month in February. However, IFC Films is going to base their release strategy on how well the film does this week in Memphis and Charlottesville - so here's contributing to the 'word of mouth' campaign that's in effect.

If you're in the Topeka area on the weekend of Oct. 22, you'll have an opportunity to see the film. The Brown Foundation is presenting a free screening to the public Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Brown V. Board of Education National Historic Site at 7pm, but you'll have to RSVP by the 20th.



Some recent articles in Memphis and Charlottesville media:

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)

Review by John Beifuss

Culpeper-Star Exponent (Va)

The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va)

The Memphis Flyer

Kevin Willmott interview: DivingIn2Memphis.com

The Daily Helmsman (Memphis)

Lawrence Journal-World

And for some background info on Kevin and his work and the film itself:

A Conversation with Kevin Willmott, Summer 2001

Ball Busters - pitch.com

Stuph...

Quite a busy weekend - did make it in to see The Billy Nayer Show and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum despite the downpour. Discovered the next morning that water came down the chimney and overflowed into the basement, effectively destroying two rugs... but they were ratty anyway, so no big loss there.

I celebrated my birthday last week - Jason Pankoke (editor of Micro-Film Magazine, whose latest issue is now available) sent me a card which was one of the best cards I'd ever received. I was even more impressed when the card turned up on local news broadcasts and newpaper opinion columns over the weekend, due to the Mayor and other City bigwigs whining about it.

If city fathers can't see the humor in this, then it's no wonder that it's so difficult trying to attract wealthy, hip business to the city and state - besides the "Evolution is Evil" school debates and the whole hating fags thing, that is.

The New Television Season is upon us, and this year marks the return of Genre television to the Networks... Being a fan of genre tv, I should be pleased that there's a lot more out there than the usual tired STAR TREK spin-off. However, I detect more than a slight whiff of deja vu off of most of the shows.

SURFACE is such a blatant homage to the works of Steven Spielberg (specifically CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, but there's bits more than reminiscent of JAWS and E.T. on occasion), I half expect to see Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon strolling across the screen on their way to Devil's tower instead of Lake Bell and... is it Jay Ferguson? ... hanging around the water's edge to find out what this new aquatic species is, that the Government is attempting to keep secret. It's entertaining so far, but if I start to hallucinate Robert Shaw during a broadcast, it's over.

INVASION and THRESHOLD are about alien invasions, INVASION taking it's own sweet time in setting things up in which aliens may have invaded the Florida coast after a hurricane, examining the effects on a small town. INVASION looks great, but it's missing some words in the the title... like "Of The Body Snatchers". I hope there may be some cross-over with COMMANDER IN CHIEF and Donald Sutherland does a guest shot later in the series - they've already tipped their hand with having Veronica Cartwright guest.

THRESHOLD is the name of the Government team and plan to deal with alien encounters. Although exactly what the aliens are up to is sort of hard to figure out - something to do with aliens from possibly another dimension who are mutating humans by means of a signal... I don't know. I'm not entirely sure the writers do either, although the cast (Carla Guigno, Brett Spiner, Charles S. Dutton and Peter Dinklage) try to fake it as best they can.

Both shows.... ehh. No reason to hate them, but it's not love at first sight either.

That leaves LOST, which kicked off strong this season by starting to answer some questions - which, of course, leads to even more questions. After seeing the third episode, I'm convinced that there is indeed some long term plan in place...

Think of LOST as the television equivalent of a graphic novel, and then the format begins to make a lot more sense - the flashbacks that help to explain some facet of the characters, the different p.o.v.'s of the same event, and the little hidden details that are keeping the forum boards busy and dvd sets bought and/or rented. That, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and FARGATE are the highlights so far, but the latter two won't have new episodes until January.

And yes, it's FARGATE - amazing what getting rid of McGuyver (who's been coasting for years and insufferable to the nth degree) and adding 2/5ths of the FARSCAPE cast will accomplish. The show is actually interesting to watch this year.

I've purposely left out NIGHT STINKER - I missed the pilot last week, but I didn't lose much sleep over it. I can't responsibly comment until I actually see and episode or two, but I do have two things to say:

1) If you just want to do another X-FILES, then dammit, make a deal with Chris Carter. I grew up on THE NIGHT STALKER and Carl Kolchak - and this ain't it.

2) The original KOLCHAK:THE NIGHT STALKER just came out on DVD this week and the tv movies THE NIGHT STALKER and THE NIGHT STRANGLER have been available for some time. Do yourself a favor and rent or buy these instead of NIGHT STINKER.

Jonathan Carroll's new novel GLASS SOUP is out - it's a follow-up to his last work WHITE APPLES.

Lastly, I want to mention Lawrence, KS based writer/director Kevin Wilmott whose movie CSA - THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA opens in Memphis, Tennessee at the Ridgeway Theatre and the Downtown Mall Charlottesville, Virginia on October 7th.
IFC Films is opening the film in the South and will spread to more theaters in other parts of the country over the next few months.

The film has already taken a lot of heat due to the subject matter and due to Spike Lee's name as Executive Producer (Spike had nothing to do with the production of the film, although some don't seem to register that).

If it opens near you, go make up your own mind; take friends and family with you, and be ready for some discussion afterwards.

By the way, the Lincoln in this clip from a "D.W. Griffith film" (actually a pretty clever pastiche) is actually KS. filmmaker Kevin McKinney. He makes a great Lincoln-in-blackface.

I was going to start posting some Halloween picks here - maybe in a couple of days. I need to start watching some appropriate films. Expect, in a few weeks, something on two underrated television series that ended much too soon: MILLENNIUM and MIRACLES.