Celebrating local young filmmakers in the Kansas City metropolitan area, Reel Spirit is the youth alliance for AMC Kansas City FilmFest, the region’s largest film festival. Scheduled this year for April 14, there is still time to submit a film for competition. Reel Spirit was founded by local educators Barbara Noble, Becky Palmer, and Toni Travalent, each with a passion for video production as an imaginative medium for children. As today’s youth grow up in a visual age, it is Reel Spirit’s intent to encourage inventive involvement in the cinematic process. Through video production, the positive outcomes for these young filmmakers are priceless in terms of self-esteem, problem solving, cooperation, character building, and perseverance.

Reel Spirit Young Filmmaker Showcase provides an authentic competitive opportunity for young student filmmakers in grades 2-6 and middle school. These students are involved in the entire video production process, including creating, writing, acting, directing, filming, editing and producing their films. Entries cover a range of categories including documentary, comedy/drama, commercials, public service announcements, claymation/animation, and news broadcasts. Last year, Reel Spirit announced the addition of a new category, “Reel Spirit of STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), through a grant sponsored by Time Warner and its initiative called Connect A Million Minds (CAMM).

This year, independent judges, all professionals in the media and technology fields, will judge the entries and select winning productions that will be shown on the big screen at AMC Mainstreet in Kansas City’s Power and Light District on April 14, 2012. Winning filmmakers receive certificates and Oscar® style trophies, along with the full “red carpet” treatment. Young filmmakers will also have the opportunity to participate in media workshops presented by local filmmakers and professionals. Reel Spirit is open to participation by any young filmmaker in the Midwest region.

Reel Spirit is proving to be the launching pad for young filmmakers. Ginger’s Encounter, one of the Reel Spirit 2010 winning entries by filmmakers Christopher and Gabrielle Dierenfeldt, was accepted and shown at the Chicago Children’s International Film Festival in October 2010 and other film festivals around the country. Another winning filmmaker, Gigi Harris, and her documentary San Mateo, has had a profound impact on the lives of people in this town on the island of Belize. Her production has been broadcast nationally in Belize and has rallied the financial support and donations to build a much-needed road to replace wooden planks over disease-infested waters in a low-income neighborhood.

Empowering these filmmakers and celebrating their cinematic visions is at the heart of Reel Spirit. We encourage all young filmmakers out there to submit entries for this year’s showcase. All entries must be postmarked by midnight March 1, 2012. For more information about the competition and showcase guidelines, including entry form, categories and divisions, visit www.reelspirit.org, email info@reelspirit.org, or like Reel Spirit on Facebook. Could 2012 be the year that you walk the red carpet?

Snively has just returned from Park City, where she attended a reading of the script by professionals before a live audience. The table read ran concurrently with the Sundance film festival.

Snively remembers her trip to the Kansas City FilmFest fondly. She says she had the “time of her life” and found Kansas City festival attendees very enthusiastic about independent film. A compilation of her work is now available on DVD through Camp Motion Pictures.

(R to L) Rashid Ghazi, Tim DePaepe and Ash-har Quraishi at the 2011 Kansas City FilmFest

The FilmFest 2011 competition feature Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football has received numerous awards, including the Special Grand Jury Award at the Slamdance Film Festival, Special Jury Prize at the DEADCenter Film Festival, the Audience and Founders Award at the 2011 Politics on Film Festival and other awards. Yet it may have been its screening at the Kansas City FilmFest that catapulted it to a theatrical release at multiple AMC Theatres nationwide on September 9, 2011.

“Without our screening at KC FilmFest, I doubt we would have had the opportunity to prove to AMC that we could draw audiences to our film,” said co-director/producer Ash-har Quraishi. “Seeing Fordson in one of their own theaters with a sold out crowd surely helped us make the case and set in motion our nationwide theatrical release.”

The Fordson story takes place at Fordson High School, a public school built by Henry Ford in 1922 that was once all white, but now attracts a 98% Arab-American population. The film follows four talented high school football players from the working class Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan as they gear up for their big senior year rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, a month when Muslims traditionally fast every day from sunrise to sundown. The film begins on September 11, 2009 and concludes at the end of Ramadan ten days later. As the Fordson team readies itself to play its affluent, cross-town rival, the film depicts a community that is desperately holding onto its Islamic faith while struggling to gain acceptance in post 9/11 America and hold on to the American Dream.

Sports fans, interfaith organizations, educational institutions and even the U.S. government have shown interest in the film. The U.S. State Department hosted a screening of the film two days before its theatrical release. At the State Department’s annual Eid dinner celebrating the end of Ramadan held that same evening, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised the film as a “great documentary and a great story.” The filmmakers call it an inspirational story about the American Dream that they hope everyone gets a chance to see.

For more information: www.fordsonthemovie.com

Happy New Year, a feature film that played at FilmFest 2011, has been popular with many festivals. It was part of the Narrative Competition at the South By Southwest film festival in March and won Best Actor and Best Director awards at the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIFF) in August. It just recently had its European premiere at the Oldenburg Film Festival (often referred to as the “German Sundance”) and took home the German Independence Audience Award for Best Picture.

The film’s story centers around Sgt. Cole Lewis (played by Michael Cuomo), who is mentally and physically scarred by his time served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the uphill battle he faces upon his return, he finds humanity, compassion and friendship in a group of similarly injured veterans in the psychiatric ward at a remote veterans hospital.

The idea for the story came from director K. Lorrel Manning, who originally created it as an Off Broadway play after interviewing veterans from WWII, Afghanistan, Iraq and all wars in between. With the success of this film, we won’t be surprised to see it at our neighborhood multi-plex soon.

Filmmaker Chris Brown reported that, since premiering at the 2010 festival, the film has gone on to play nearly 40 festivals around the globe and won a total of 16 awards so far. Awards include Best Drama, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, and Best Ensemble, to name a few. Brown says he has been reflecting on that wonderful first screening in Kansas City, where the KC FilmFest was the first festival to give the film a chance.

In the film’s story, Fanny, Annie and Danny are three troubled adult siblings brought together by their horrific mother for the Christmas holiday. Like just about everything in Brown’s work, what seems commonplace on the surface becomes riveting in the details. As with a storm building strength silently offshore, we sense the impending climax without knowing exactly when or where it will hit – or how hard.

More information at: www.fannyannieanddanny.com.

The print program used by thousands at 2011 FilmFest won a first place award in Nonprofit Connect’s 9th Annual Philly Awards Honoring Excellence in Nonprofit Communications. Jeph Scanlon, executive director of the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee is pictured with Dana Weaver, co-chair of the Philly Awards. The FilmFest program was recognized in the Print Magazine category of the competition at the Nonprofit Connect awards luncheon on October 18 at the downtown Kansas City Convention Center.

According to Michelle Davis, Executive Director of Nonprofit Connect, “The judging team was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the 185 entries we received this year, a new record for Philly’s entries!”

Special recognition goes to Kathy Hanis who led the team that created the program and to Bryan Colley, the volunteer graphic designer.

You’re invited to CinemaKC’s fall fundraiser, “Go to 11 on 11-11-11 with Spinal Tap.” The event includes a screening and celebration of the classic rock ’n’ roll mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap, on Friday Nov. 11, 2011 at the Screenland Crossroads Theatre, 1656 Washington. Tickets are $11.

• Relive the sights, the sounds and the smells of Spinal Tap – including clueless guitar god Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and his collection of ludicrously loud axes that inexplicably “go to 11.”
• Party to a rockin’ live band gamely performing “Big Bottom,” “Sex Farm” and many more highly questionable Spinal Tap ditties!
• Come dressed as your favorite Spinal Tap band member or other overinflated figure from the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock!
• Enter the “Go to 11″ Spinal Tap raffle offering 11 unusual prizes riding the fine line between stupid and clever!

For more information go to cinemakc.com.

]]> http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/go-to-11-with-spinal-tap/feed/ 0 http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/filmfest-winner-international-acclaim/ http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/filmfest-winner-international-acclaim/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:08:11 +0000 KC Jubilee https://kcjubilee.org/?p=1920 A Kansas-lensed feature film, which premiered at the 2011 AMC Theatres® Kansas City FilmFest, won the festival’s Independent Best Heartland Narrative Feature and went on to win fans on both sides of the Atlantic. Au Pair, Kansas, which was written, directed and produced by KU graduate JT O’Neal, also received the Best Low Budget Feature Film award at the Cannes Independent Film Festival, won awards at other U.S. festivals, and may soon be on its way to German and French TV.

Au Pair, Kansas is a story about finding love after loss and how a soccer ball can turn sadness into laughter and joy. The film tells the story of Helen, a recently widowed woman (Traci Lords), who hires a Norwegian soccer player to be a male au pair for her two young sons (Spencer Daniels of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Kendall Ryan Sanders). The plot deals with the family’s recent personal loss and how each member of the family is coping with sadness and anger. Enter Oddmund Lindeflaten (Norwegian TV and film star Håvard Lilleheie), who arrives in Lindsborg, Kansas, a quaint Swedish farming community that doesn’t know what to think of the sudden arrival of a Norwegian fellow. (The underlying joke here is that Norwegians weren’t happy to be ruled by Sweden, from whom they gained independence in 1905.) The story begins when Oddmund arrives at the small town’s bus station and is greeted by his new employer Helen, who runs a bison farm – and a very tight ship in her household. As the story progresses, we see how Oddmund’s presence changes the family dynamics. The Lindsborg characters are quirky and uniquely charming. The diversity of the characters is almost unexpected in this small town, and it leaves the audience wishing they could live there, too.

The film employs what O’Neal describes as “magical realism,” where magical elements are part of the everyday world – where the “real” and the “fantastic” flow together in an unassuming manner. The inspiration for the film came from O’Neal’s chance meeting with Lilleheie at Cinequest, the San Jose Film festival, where Lilleheie starred in United, the opening night feature film. O’Neal immediately saw Lilleheie as “an incredible talent,” and the wheels were then in motion for this film.

Au Pair, Kansas was filmed in just 18 days and on a shoestring budget. Since Lindsborg locals opened their homes for filming, there were no location costs in making the film. But the film almost didn’t happen at all. Right before shooting was to begin, there was a concern that Lilleheie would not receive his U.S. work visa in time to travel. In other words, no lead character. It worked out in the end, but the legal costs and fees for Lilleheie’s visa were twice his salary for the film.

O’Neal has fond memories of the film’s world premiere screening at the 2011 AMC Theatres® Kansas City FilmFest. “It was great having some of the Lindsborg Swedish dancers there,” he said. Even the major of Lindsborg was in the audience. ” I also had a group of my old friends from Lawrence High School, KU, and KU Med school, as well as my brother and his extended family. So it was truly like coming home.”
O’Neal has just returned from Oslo, Norway, where he attended a screening of the film and appeared on “Good Morning Norway.” European audiences have shown great interest in the film, he says. He is in talks right now with French and German TV networks regarding distribution. (The international title will be Soccer Nanny, which will be more easily understood overseas.)

Discussing the experience of shooting films in Kansas, O’Neal talked about the beauty of the landscape and his fondness for Lindsborg, a town he fell in love with when doing research on the artist Birger Sandzen as a KU student. O’Neal says that Kansans who see the film tell him they have never seen Kansas look so beautiful. Anyone who has seen the film can attest to the scenic vistas.

O’Neal is committed to filming in Kansas whenever he can; however, other filmmakers may need financial incentives to choose Kansas, he says, because there’s no scenery here that cannot be found somewhere else.
O’Neal’s next project will most likely be a film called “My Father’s Hero,” about a high school football player and his girlfriend who have differing opinions on what to do after she becomes pregnant. He is co-writing the screenplay with Spencer Daniels, who may also star in the film. Like Au Pair, Kansas, this story sounds like it will grab your heart.

From one Heartland native to another, we congratulate JT on his success with Au Pair, Kansas, a very human tale about how to bring back laughter, joy and love after tragedy. We hope to see his next film at another AMC Theatres® Kansas City FilmFest event in the very near future.

Au Pair, Kansas website: http://aupairkansasmovie.wordpress.com/

]]> http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/filmfest-winner-international-acclaim/feed/ 1 http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/the-history-of-the-kansas-city-filmfest/ http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/the-history-of-the-kansas-city-filmfest/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:00:20 +0000 KC Jubilee https://kcjubilee.org/?p=1924 The next annual AMC Theatres® Kansas City FilmFest, scheduled for April 2012 at AMC’s downtown Mainstreet theater, will showcase local, regional and international short and feature-length films over the span of five days.

Prizes will be handed out. Panels and workshops on different areas of the filmmaking process will be offered. Many of the filmmakers themselves will be on hand to answer questions and take part in discussions on their cinematic creations.

But while this celebration of film has the bragging rights of being the largest film festival in the Kansas City metro area, its beginning is somewhat more humble. The Kansas City FilmFest, or the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee as it was originally known, was started in 1997 by film and jazz enthusiast Fred Andrews.

“His initial impetus was to show local films; showcase local filmmakers. That was what he wanted to do,” said Jeph Scanlon of Jubilee founder Fred Andrews. Scanlon is the executive director of the nonprofit organization that organizes the festival each year, the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee.

With the help of the Film Society of Greater Kansas City, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Kansas City Art Institute and the Independent Filmmakers Coalition, Andrews got the first Jubilee off the ground, showing 12 short films in succession on an April afternoon in UMKC’s Royal Hall. Scanlon said the positive reaction of the more than 400 people who attended that first event was enough for Andrews to see that an annual film festival could be possible and would be embraced by the Kansas City community.

“So that was kind of the impetus of Fred’s thought process being, ‘Oh, gee, I might have something here. Maybe we can do this again next year,’” Scanlon said.

Organized every year since then, the festival continues to build on its initial success. By mid-1998, the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee received its 501(c)3 nonprofit designation. Its reputation as a viable festival for filmmakers to show their work began to grow, as well, with the second annual Jubilee receiving 67 film entries.

On the suggestion of attendees to the first festival, the second Jubilee was organized as a juried competition and continues to be done so to this day. More than $200,000 in cash and prizes has been awarded to filmmakers over the course of the festival’s 15-year history.

In 1999, a national advisory board was created for the Jubilee. And in 2008, the Jubilee partnered with FilmFest KC — another Kansas City-based film festival that had been organized for years by the Film Society of Greater Kansas City — to become Kansas City FilmFest. This partnership changed the game for the festival. While the Jubilee mostly focused on short films, the Kansas City FilmFest now includes screenings of feature-length films and documentaries from across the globe.
In 2009, the festival moved from its Westport location to the downtown area, renting out three theaters in AMC’s Mainstreet theater. The partnership between AMC Theatres®and the Kansas City FilmFest was solidified in 2011, when the national theater company became a title sponsor of the festival, making a final name change necessary: AMC Theatres®Kansas City FilmFest.

Scanlon said the festival now screens in the vicinity of 120 films each year and draws anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 attendees. Many of the films shown at the festival have gone on to achieve great success, including “Winter’s Bone.” Straight from a Sundance win, the film had a public screening at Kansas City FilmFest in 2010. “Winter’s Bone” later went on to receive several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Scanlon said that what Fred Andrews started is just as important today as it ever was — and not just because, as he said, “we bring films and filmmakers in from all over the world.” But also because the festival serves as a barometer for what’s going on in the film community locally.

“I would say that Kansas City is a viable filmmaking town. There are lots and lots of exciting things going on here, maybe on a limited or small scale, but it is growing and growing every year … A good gauge of that is how many feature films are submitted to us in the Heartland division,” Scanlon said of the judging category that includes submissions from Kansas or Missouri. He said in the past couple of years, there have been from 10 to 15 Heartland division submissions each year. “So to say that in a given year there’s a dozen or two dozen feature films made in Kansas or Missouri, I think that would surprise some people in a very positive way.”

]]> http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/the-history-of-the-kansas-city-filmfest/feed/ 0 http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/2011-tallgrass-film-festival/ http://kcjubilee.org/2011/10/2011-tallgrass-film-festival/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:55:52 +0000 KC Jubilee https://kcjubilee.org/?p=1916

The ninth annual Tallgrass Film Festival is set for Oct. 20-23 and will take place at more than 16 venues in and around downtown Wichita, Kansas. The festival showcases 45 independent feature films representing 21 countries from around the world, and nearly twice as many short films. This year’s festival will also present one world premiere, as well as several Midwest and Regional premiering films.

The theme of this year’s festival – “Get Twisted” – is a nod to the state of Kansas’ notorious weather patterns, as well as to the beauty of independent filmmaking, which allows filmmakers to tell interesting, unique and non-formulaic stories.

The official festival program will be included as an insert in The Wichita Eagle on Oct. 14 and visit mobile.tallgrassfilmfest.com from your smartphone to create your own festival schedule. For the latest information find Tallgrass on Facebook and Twitter.

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