NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN SA
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20. 2006
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Willmott started his film company, Hodcarrier Films, and named it after the back-breaking construction job his father had worked for many years, which became a "perfect metaphor for trying to make independent movies," Willmott said. "Ninth Street" took a grueling eight years to finish because of struggles with wary investors and shoe-string budgets.
Willmott, always the activist, said his greatest work during this time was not his role as director of "Ninth Street," but his role in turning around the life of a homeless man, Pedro Boren, whom he met during his school days in New York City.
Boren was in his fifties and battling alcoholism, drug abuse and HIV. Willmott took Boren back to Kansas to
bunks who drinks blue-collar beer like Miller High Life. He likes to relax by listening to his collection of legends of R & B and Jazz, such as Isaac Hayes and John Coltrane.
The family moved to Lawrence when Becky got a job as a nurse at St. Joseph Health Center in nearby Kansas City, Mo. Willmilt, who had connections with Lawrence's movie scene, was later asked to teach KU film classes.
"When you see someone make it, success no longer seems so abstract."
Aside from his activism and filmmaking, Willmott's greatest joy is helping future filmmakers produce their own movies.
Greg Albrecht, a former student in the advanced screen writing class, said Willmott pro-
train him to work in the movie business. Willmill took Boren into his home and helped him in much the same way his mother had cared for Junction City's impoverished during his childhood.
Willmott's oldest son, Berrigan, 22, (named after peace activist Daniel Berrigan, who Willmott heard speak in college) remembers how Boren was considered part of the family, with both men benefiting from their relationship.
Greg Albrecht Former KU student
"My father needed dedicated people to help him make 'Ninth Street,' and Pedro needed a dedicated friend to help him turn his life around," Berrigan said.
At his suburban home on the west side of Lawrence with his wife Becky and five children — Berrigan, 22, William, 20, Kevin, 16, Ruth, 11, and Jody, 8, — Willmott is an average Joe, dressed in jeans and white Ree-
Willmott gave Boren a reason to live, and with the love and support from Willmott's entire family, Boren cleaned himself up and lived happily in Lawrence for five years before dying from complications of AIDS.
vided him with the knowledge and confidence he needed to break through as an independent filmmaker.
Albrecht recalls talking with one of the actors from "CSA: The
Confederate States of America," who described Willmott as a "success waiting to happen," something that stuck with Albrecht. "When you see someone make it, success no longer seems so abstract," Albrecht said.
As a teacher, Willmott has the ability to inject dark humor in serious subject matter, a skill he developed when he took a brief stab at performing stand-up comedy. He says his best impression was doing actor John Wayne as a pimp. In his History of African American Images in Cinema class, students cannot help but giggle when Willmott points out that Will Smith's character's biggest concern in the Legend of Bagger Vance "was teaching Matt Damon how to play golf" in 1930s Georgia, where many African-American males were worried about being lynched.
Albrecht recalls one lecture when Willmott warned his future filmmakers "that in Hollywood it is OK to make movies about masturbating in pies, just don't try to make movies that tackle real issues."
"CSA: The Confederate
States of America," is the epitome of an edgy, emotional and thought-provoking film — the kind of film Hollywood executives avoid.
While the film terrified Hollywood big shots, it wowed African-American movie pioneer Spike Lee, who offered his name as executive producer to aid Willmott's search for a distribution company.
That search did not last long. Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Entertainment, saw the film at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and jumped at the chance to sign the film to a distribution deal. The confrontational film "is exactly the kind of project that IFC embraces; it asks more questions than it answers," Sehring said.
The main question the film asks audiences: Are Americans living in the United States of America or the Confederate States of America? If you ask Willmott, Americans are living in a bit of both.
Willmott argues that "the southern ideals" opposing civil rights are still guiding the country today. For evidence of that legacy, he points to today's struggles for women's rights, the ongoing debate regarding gay rights and even the country's handling of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and how the hurricane's impact fell most heavily on a population that was both poor and African American.
He said the government dropped the ball on a chance to show the world just how united the country really is by dedicating more resources to the rebuilding process in the southern states.
"If America was really The UNITED States of America, you go down there and you start rebuilding, and you take pride in the fact you can rebuild a city from the ground up." Willmott said.
There is some irony in the fact that 109 years after the North prevailed against the South in the Civil War, an African-American filmmaker and activist from Bleeding Kansas played the role of a rebel against the Confederate States of America.
Edited by Janiece Gatson
Kevin Willmott holds the hand of his son, Berrigan Willmott, in the winner of 1984 inside the Junction City Chamber of Commerce building during a protest of the city's unfair system of awarding contracts.
Photo contributed by The Manhattan Mercur