Willmott prides himself in the film's edgy content. He wanted to approach slavery head on and from a new angle. To create this new look, Willmott knew he needed a versatile cinematographer. Fortunately, he was sharing an office with Matt Jacobson, also an assistant professor for the film department. The script blew Jacobson away. "What it says is too important to not listen to," Jacobson says.
By April 2000 Willmott and Jacobson were shooting their first scene, a commercial for a show called Runaways. In the scene a group of CBI agents chase down runaway slaves, pulling them out of car trunks, running through backyards and viciously throwing them to the ground. The scene is eerily similar to an average commercial for Cops. During this shoot Jacobson realized he had to make the film like he was from the CSA universe. He was expected to shoot images that were disturbing and it took him a while to get past that. Rick Cowan, the film's producer, says that many actors were uncomfortable with some of the derogatory or racist things they had to say. Cowan admired Willmott's ability to assure the cast and crew that they were creating satire. By approaching slavery from the opposite view point, the artists realized a vision. "When you make these choices it's tougher for the other people. I think that's what was great about the film, they trusted me. They had to trust me," Willmott says.
Production on the film lasted until Spring 2003. The three-year shoot would take place over furiously busy weekends and holidays. The crew would shoot for two days straight to get two minutes of film and then pack everything up for weeks until they could afford to get the film developed. Willmott says funding was the major obstacle when making the movie, typical for an independent film. He received two grants of about $10,000 each, one from the National Black Programming Consortium and the other from the KU New Faculty Research. As soon as he received the grants, Willmott began shooting. Then he'd take the bits and pieces of film he had and show them to investors to try to raise more money.
Even under a tight budget the crew shot the scenes the way they wanted to. "The goal is to make the film you want to make," Willmott says. He completed CSA for less than $1 million. That's nearly impossible to do in the film industry. Cold Mountain, a recent Civil War "reunion" movie, cost $80 million.
Kevin Willmott gets cozy with new producer Spike Lee at The Sundance Film Festival. Photo: University Relations
Willmott's first "movies" cost him much less. He loved the movies as a child and would spend hours at the Junction City movie theater watching Godzilla throw Mothra across the screen and John Wayne duke it out with the villain of the week. Through these films Willmott developed an affinity for history, although it was Hollywood's history. This passion for the past has been an inspiration for most of Willmott's work. These movies inspired a sixth-grade Willmott to start writing stories with the kids in his class cast as military men or cowboys. "They were like bad John Wayne movies," Willmott says. "The guys I didn't like would get killed." Willmott loses it, laughing, when he talks about the stories today.
Another movie from this time period that affected Willmott was Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Though Willmott wouldn't see it until well after its 1964 release, the film's style and sense of humor greatly affected Willmott's career, particularly CSA. Willmott admired the way director Stanley Kubrick dealt with humor in the movie. In both Dr. Strangelove and CSA, the humor comes from a false absurdity. In CSA the audience thinks they're laughing at a racist world that never occurred. In Dr. Strangelove the audience thinks they're laughing at nuclear annihilation. Both films make the point that these consequences have in some ways already occurred.
In 1971, Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Bad Asssss Song played in Junction City. Willmott loved the film, and it gave him hope to see an African American director making a movie for African Americans. Sweet Sweetback was the first Blaxploitation film. Blaxploitation was a film movement in the '70s, featuring African-American directors guiding African-American protagonists for African-American audiences.
Willmott says activism is an important part of his filmmaking. Being an activist for civil rights, anti-war movements and the homeless has fueled a passion for the stories he tells on the screen and on the stage, Willmott says. A good filmmaker has to know what they believe before they have something to say. Coady also encouraged Willmott to go to college, something unheard of in Willmott's neighborhood. Willmott went to Marymount College in Salina. He found his first success as an artist there writing plays. At Marymount he crafted a play called Ninth Street. Set in 1968 the play allows audiences to witness the exploits of several residents of a city block in downtown Junction City. The play even features a Catholic priest named Frank Coady.
In high school Willmott began writing plays with hopes that he would some day be able to make his own movies, like his hero Van Peebles. In 1974 Willmott was kicked out of public school for being involved in a riot. During this troubled time Willmott received help from a Catholic priest named Frank Coady. Willmott says Coady was the most instrumental person in his life. Coady helped Willmott enroll at St. Xavier's High School, where Willmott began writing plays. Coady also got Willmott interested in activism, especially for the homeless.
Ninth Street was well received and it won Willmott acceptance into New York University, for graduate studies. At NYU Willmott converted Ninth Street into a screenplay. After finishing his studies at NYU, Willmott returned to Kansas to focus on producing the film. He began production in 1991. Ninth Street would take almost a decade to make. Rick Cowan also served as a producer for Ninth Street. "With Ninth Street it was a bunch of guys who had no idea how to make a movie," Cowan says. Released in 1999, the film featured Willmott, Isaac Hayes, Queen Bey and Martin Sheen as Father Frank.
After filming of CSA was completed, the movie screened to a sold-out crowd at Liberty Hall. The audience roared at the opening commercial but as the film flickered on the laughter died. The crowd giggled nervously as they watched history rewritten. Willmott and Jacobson had accomplished their first goal: the movie had the effect they wanted. Their second goal — the Sundance Film Festival — was equally auspicious.
in both Dr. Strangelove and CSA, the humor comes from a false absurdity. In CSA the audience thinks they're laughing at a racist world that never occurred. In Dr. Strangelove the audience thinks they're laughing at nuclear annihilation. Both films make the point that these consequences have in some ways already occurred.