Movies can help inspire and educate.
That’s what Academy Award filmmaker Kevin Willmott wants to do when he makes films. Willmott, who is also a film professor at The University of Kansas, spoke Wednesday evening at Emporia State University about filmmaking and social justice.
One of Willmott’s documentaries he’s made recently has Emporia ties. Willmott made the documentary entitled “William Allen White: What’s the Matter with Kansas” in 2020. Willmott says making a documentary about William Allen White is important after the mark White left on Emporia.
Willmott, who grew up in Junction City, says it was important for him to start his career making films in his home state. Those films have helped him branch out to working on major motion pictures, including winning an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2019 for BlacKkKlansman, which he co-wrote with Charlie Wachtel and David Rabinowitz and Spike Lee.
Currently, Willmott is wrapping up a documentary entitled “No Place Like Home.” The documentary is a tour of Kansas to meet people who have found themselves in a battle for LGBTQ rights in the most unlikely places. Those places include Topeka, Salina, and rural Trego County. According to Internet Movie Database, the release of the documentary is expected for this year.
