Department of Film Media Studies · of "Chi‐Raq" (2015) and the forthcoming "Black Klansman" with...

Volume 8, Issue 8 May 2018

T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f K a n s a s

Department of Film & Media Studies

Inside this issue:

C A 2‐3

R

A

4

O A 5‐10

F 11

A N 12

A ! 13

Department of Film & Media Studies May 2018

Coming Attractions

Department of Film

and Media Studies

2018 Annual Student

Recogni on Ceremony

and Tensie Awards

Thursday, May 3, 2018 (last day of classes)

All FMS students are invited and

encouraged to a end.

Family members and friends welcome.

University of Kansas

146th Commencement

Sunday, May 13, 2018

Memorial Stadium

Beginning at 10:30 a.m. (CST)

Commencement Ceremony Info:

h p://commencement.ku.edu/

The School of the Arts

Convoca on Ceremony

Friday, May 11, 2018

6:30 p.m.

Cra on‐Preyer Theatre, Murphy Hall

1530 Naismith Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045

Submit your RSVP or email [email protected]

no later than May 8 at 5:00 p.m.

Please note: This ceremony is in addi on to,

not taking the place of, the University of Kansas

Commencement Ceremony on May 13, 2018.


Coming Attractions


KU Film and Media Studies' doctoral student Najmeh Moradiyan Rizi is a recipient of "2018 Tradi on of Excellence Award" presented by the KU Student Endowment Board. The award ceremony will be held on May 1, 2018, at the KU Endowment office.

Award Descrip on: "The Tradi on of Excellence Award is awarded to University of Kansas students who are dedicated to upholding the pres ge and history of the students who came before them and who wish to con nue carving a path of dis nc on for the future.

Funding for this award is provided by philanthropic ac vi es of the Student Endowment Board, as sponsored by KU Endowment."

Copied from: h p://www.kuendowment.org/Get‐Involved/Student‐Endowment‐Board/Scholarships

Recognitions and Accomplishments

KU announces Women’s Hall of Fame inductees

Since 1970, the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity has honored a select group of women to be inducted into the University of Kansas Women’s Hall of Fame. It honors and celebrates KU’s rich legacy of women who, through their transforma onal leadership and contribu ons, have changed the world.

Honorees are recognized, along with the outstanding recipients of the 10 other awards, at the recogni on program sponsored by the Emily Taylor Center, supported by the KU student organiza on Students United for Reproduc ve and Gender Equity (SURGE) on April 12.

Former Chancellor Bernade e Gray‐Li le joined the event to introduce the new award created in her honor: the Bernade e Gray‐Li le “Expanding the Reach” Award. Faculty member Tamara Falicov, Film and Media Studies professor and interim associate dean for research in the arts and humani es, was a recipient of this new award. This award is given to one faculty and one staff "who contribute to campus recruitment and reten on efforts through their work to promote gender equity and diversity.”

Read the full story here: h ps://news.ku.edu/2018/04/11/emily‐taylor‐center‐announces‐annual‐womens‐awards

Congratula ons to Miranda Cook, Academic Advisor, on comple ng her Master’s Degree in Counseling and College Student Development at Kansas State University! We’re glad she is with FMS and KU!


Out & About

“I would say my favorite moment in the Film and Media studies department was winning my first Tensie Award for my cartoon Bird Brains.” – Ricky Smith

“I got to spend spring break of my senior year with fellow film majors exploring and networking across the city of Los Angeles. The annual Film and Media Studies Department‐sponsored trip, "Career Week in L.A.," provides a select group of students the opportunity to meet and visit with a mul tude of KU alumni and industry professionals who are currently working in film or television. From watching a live‐taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, to behind‐the‐scenes in the producer's control room, to mee ng iconic film director Christopher Nolan in person at the Arclight movie theater, this week was without a doubt one of the most amazing experiences I had at KU.” – Hunter Harding

Copied from: h ps://sota.ku.edu/senior‐memories‐class‐2018

JOHN TIBBETTS appeared at the Kauffmann Conference Center in

Kansas City to speak about the French film, BEAUMARCHAIS L'INSOLENT ("Beaumarchais the Scoundrel") to the Lyric Opera Guild on April 9. This was in advance of the staging at the Lyric Opera of Mozart’s comic opera, THE BARBER OF SEVILLE, April 28‐May 6, from the play by Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais. Tibbe s screened clips from the 1996 film, directed by Eduardo Molinaro.


Out & About

Film recasts crusading journalist in modern context Speaking out against racism and poli cal demagoguery, for free speech and factual news coverage, pu ng principle ahead of party ‐ the issues Kansas journalist William Allen White championed a century ago could be torn from today’s headlines Kevin Willmo 's new documentary shows White as a truly modern figure whose beliefs about democracy resonate deeply with current affairs.

“William Allen White: What’s the Ma er with Kansas?” is the latest directorial effort from Willmo , creator of such films as "Jayhawkers" (2014) and "C.S.A.: Confederate States of America" (2004) and screenwriter of "Chi‐Raq" (2015) and the forthcoming "Black Klansman" with Spike Lee. The film, whose produc on was funded by the William Allen White Founda on and the KU Endowment Associa on, had its premiere on April 25 .

“He is the example of what makes and what made Kansas great,” said Willmo , professor of film & media studies. “He ran the Ku Klux Klan out of Kansas in the 1920s.”

In that period, a er the success of the 1915 film “The Birth of a Na on (The Clansman),” the Klan spread like wildfire across the Midwest.

“It took over Indiana, and they just about took over Kansas,” Willmo said. “They were in every city in the state. There were 6,000 official members in Wichita alone. They had huge parades and gatherings. They would march in the Fourth of the July parade. There was the Kiwanis, the Elks, the Eagles and the Klan. They were just a totally normal thing.”

Things got so bad that by 1924, long a er White became famous as “the Sage of Emporia” and the year a er he won the Pulitzer Prize, he ran for governor as an independent in a bid to expose the Klan.

“Because the Democrats and the Republicans were both in the Klan’s pockets, he had to run to expose the problem,” Willmo said. “So he ran as an independent, which was a tough thing for him, because he was a die‐hard Republican Party man. For him to have to step out of his beloved party shows how bad the situa on was.”

While White didn’t become governor, he supported other candidates who opposed the Klan, and eventually laws were passed that denied the KKK a state organiza onal charter, which “effec vely made them illegal,” Willmo said. “If White had not done that, we could easily have turned into another Indiana or Oklahoma, or worse, another Mississippi or Alabama.”

White came to na onal prominence in 1896 as a right‐wing cri c of the le ‐leaning populist movement that had taken root in Kansas and across the na on. His column tled “What’s the Ma er with Kansas?” was a scathing a ack on Democra c presiden al candidate William Jennings Bryan and the likes of Kansas populist congressman “Sockless Jerry” Simpson, who railed against the railroad barons and other powers that be during the economic depression in rural America that presaged the Great Depression.

“They have a big fight where the governor had to send troops to the Statehouse to keep the par es from going at each other,” Willmo said of the episode that is today called “The Legisla ve War” of 1892. “Literally, there are photographs of a Gatling gun in the Kansas Statehouse. These guys were really at each other’s throats.”

(Con nued on the next page)


Out & About (Con nued from the previous page)

This sort of poli cal disorder was hur ng Kansas economically, White wrote.

“In today’s terms, it went viral,” Willmo said.

White’s editorial was reprinted in newspapers across the country, and the Republican Party turned it into pamphlets suppor ng their presiden al candidate that year, William McKinley.

“That’s what made White famous was this editorial, which is a right‐wing a ack on a bunch of crazy le ies,” Willmo said. “What’s really cool is that a few years later, he starts to see that they weren’t all wrong; these populist guys had some points to make. It’s mainly through his rela onship with Teddy Roosevelt that White starts to change his ideas. He had a saying: ‘Teddy bit me.’

“So White starts to see ‘I was wrong about that editorial.’ He ends up saying, ‘I wrote it in haste, in a highly emo onal state,’ and he kind of apologized for it the rest of his life, which is really great, because today you rarely see someone in public life who comes back and says, ‘I wasn’t quite right about that’ – especially about the thing that made them famous.”

Willmo said White tacked to the poli cal le for the rest of his life, opposing the Red Scare of the 1920s, the Palmer Raids and the Klan – all mo vated by an ‐immigrant sen ment.

“He starts to form these no ons about how important free speech and the First Amendment is,” Willmo said, “and these things become for him small‐town values. He does all this from Emporia. And whereas other people speaking about these things are doing it mainly from New York, he’s got this na onal voice, but it’s always based in small‐town America.”

White fought charlatans in every form — from yellow journalism to the infamous quack goat‐gland implan ng “doctor” John Brinkley.

“White really is a modern figure,” Willmo said. “So many of the things he said about demagogues and people who can easily dupe others and wield power in a democra c society really speak to a lot of issues today.”

A er the on‐campus premiere, Willmo said he hopes the film will be shown on PBS television sta ons locally and na onally. A shortened version will be produced for use in classrooms.

Copied from: h p://news.ku.edu/2018/03/29/film‐recast‐william‐allen‐white‐modern‐context

Photo: Professor Kevin Willmo . Credit: KU Marke ng Communica ons.


Out & About

'BlackKklansman' taking Willmo from Kansas to Cannes

It’s the wave of populist na onalism buoying the poli cal fortunes of President Donald Trump and France’s Marine Le Pen, among others, that will deliver Kansas filmmaker Kevin Willmo to the sunny shores of the Mediterranean next month when the film he co‐wrote with Spike Lee, “BlackKklansman,” is featured in the compe on at the Cannes Film Fes val.

It’s the professor of film & media studies’ second co‐screenwri ng credit on a Spike Lee Joint – a er 2015’s “Chi‐Raq.” They have adapted a 2014 memoir by Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in which he tells how he infiltrated a cell of the virulently white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.

The actual incidents took place in 1979, and the film is set in that me, but Willmo says the stranger‐than fic on story resonates with today’s poli cal and racial climate.

“Some stuff you can’t make up,” Willmo said. “Every day we get reminded of that in various ways.”

Willmo said that, like his previous films “C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America” (2004) and “Des na on: Planet Negro” (2013), “BlacKkKlansman” strikes a balance between comedy and drama while trying to say something real about race rela ons.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of connec ons to today,” Willmo said. “‘BlacKkKlansman’ feels very much about the Klan today.”

Willmo cited the white na onalist protest in Charlo esville, Virginia, last year, during which counter protester Heather Heyer was killed, and President Trump’s subsequent comments placed blame on “both sides.” Then there’s the ongoing controversy about removing various Confederate monuments.

“It’s s ll very much this fight about what America are we going to live in; what America are we going to believe in?” Willmo said. “The metaphor I keep using is, 'Are we going to be the C.S.A. or the U.S.A.?' That seems to be the real dilemma in American life and always has been. We have two choices: Are you going to expand freedom, or are you going to limit or reduce freedom? The U.S.A. wants to expand freedom. It wants to give women their proper place, bring the gay community in and acknowledge transgender people, and the C.S.A. comes in and wants to limit those things. And that is the fight for democracy we keep having. It seems like that is just the American struggle.

”Willmo recalled that when he was student body president at Marymount College in the late 1970s, former Klan leader David Duke wrote seeking an invita on to speak on campus as part of his then‐new group, the Na onal Associa on for the Advancement of White People. That, Willmo said, marked the beginning of the infiltra on of Klan‐like ideas into the mainstream of American poli cs.

We think of the Klan today as just a small group of yahoos,” Willmo said. “But, unfortunately … their numbers are growing right now because of the president’s support of them.

“And I’m just going to say it like that, because it’s true. When you equate people that are protes ng Nazis and the Klan and you say that there are good people there, too — when the president says that, it sends a message to that small group of people that are trying to keep their insane organiza on going. That really ins lls them with courage and energy.

(Con nued on the next page)


Out & About

(Con nued from the previous page)

“That’s the new Klan, with the hood off," he said. "It talks about immigra on, affirma ve ac on and en tlement programs. It talks about American values a lot. Even the slogan that the president uses, America First, that was a Klan slogan in the 1920s. So they sell this profound patrio sm and love of America combined with fear of the other. That’s why you see Klan endorsing President Trump. They wanted to merge themselves with mainstream as much as possible.

“That’s what makes the president acknowledging them in Charlo esville such a profound mistake. Because they’ve been looking for that kind of legi macy since they took their hoods off, and Trump gave them that.

“Right now they feel they can come out of the dark, take the stage and sell their propaganda," Willmo said. "And the thing is that most of us know they will never take over America. The threat is always how their message infiltrates the mainstream in li le drops.

“That’s one of the messages of the film; that this is not just happening in the United States right now, but it’s happening all over the world. Marine Le Pen almost won in France, and she’s selling this horrible, an ‐Semi c, hate‐immigrants kind of message. It’s happening in a bunch of different countries in Europe right now.

“The fact that that kind of far‐right‐wing stuff is happening all over the world may be one of the reasons Cannes is interested in the film,” he said. The Cannes Film Fes val runs May 8‐19, and the film is set to open in the U.S. on Aug. 10, the anniversary of the Charlo esville neo‐Nazi march. The screening me and date for “BlacKKKlansman” in Cannes had yet to be set, Willmo said. He’s looking forward to networking and to mee ng his hero, French New Wave auteur Jean‐Luc Godard, who also has a film in the compe on.

Photo: "Black Klansman" memoir author Ron Stallworth, courtesy of the author. Copied from: h p://news.ku.edu/2018/04/23/blackkklansman‐will‐take‐willmo ‐kansas‐cannes

“BlacKKKlansman” won the Grand Prix prize at the Cannes Film Fes val!

h ps://www.villagevoice.com/2018/05/30/the‐14‐best‐movies‐at‐the‐2018‐cannes‐film‐fes val/

h ps://www.fes val‐cannes.com/en/fes val/palmares/compe on


Out & About

Tamara Falicov par cipated in a panel discussion in an event with La nx writer and advocate, Gabby Rivera, a QTPOC Youth Advocate and creator of America, featuring the first queer La na superhero in Marvin Comics! The event was held on April 24 in the Kansas Union Ballroom. A brief Q&A with the audience followed the panel discussion.

The mission of Into the Streets Week is to include and reflect the diversity of perspec ves and experiences of the KU community. With this panel, the CCO aims to engage KU students with nuanced understandings of privilege and power, the importance of including all iden es in the formula on of a community, and how communi es have the capacity to be safe, empowering spaces. As members of a mul cultural ins tu on, the CCO believes that bringing diversity, collabora on, and representa on to the forefront of conversa ons about cra ing community serves a university‐wide ini a ve to make KU (and Lawrence) a more inclusive place.

Tamara Falicov reports that she has been offered a Visi ng Fellowship to the London Ins tute of La n American Studies during July and August 2018. Falicov is looking forward to spending me in London with her family as she starts a new book project.


Faculty Profile

Robert Hurst

Professor of Film Produc on 12 years at KU Exper se: Audio Produc on, Documentary,

Narra ve Projects: "The Listeners", "Garden City"

Professor Hurst is an accomplished produc on professor and filmmaker, more recently concentra ng on documentary work. Past projects have included audio design and sound supervision on "The Only Good Indian," "Des na on: Planet Negro" and "Fall From Grace" as well as museum installa ons at the African Burial Ground Na onal Monument in Manha an, NY and The Interna onal Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, NC. More recently he has directed and produced "The Listeners," a feature length documentary exploring suicide hotlines and the volunteers who answer calls. It is currently being distributed by Kino Lorber Films.

What do you teach?

I teach filmmaking courses mostly ‐ Sound Design, Post Produc on, Documentary and Fic on produc on.

What are some of the things that excite you about the Film Department and KU in general?

Well, our new facili es are pre y great! Really first class. I think that’s bringing a lot of energy to the program and a rac ng a lot of posi ve a en on and new majors. Our faculty and students are making connec ons with other schools and departments, which is also enriching the life of the department for everyone.

What’s the best way for students to get involved in Film and Media Studies?

There are lots of ways – taking courses, of course ‐ but also one can get involved with Filmworks, which is open to any undergraduate; by a ending screenings and events sponsored by the department; and even ac ng in or crewing on student produc ons. There are a lot of produc ons going on in any given semester.

Copied from: h ps://film.ku.edu/faculty‐profile‐hurst


Alumni News

FMS alum Travis Diesing (FMS BGS 2016) reports that Stacks, a short college library comedy produced in associa on with Ma Jacobson's Spring 2016 Advanced Produc on class and Laura Kirk's Spring 2016 Ac ng for the Camera class, was screened at the Kansas City Film Fest in the Heartland Student Shorts on April 12.

Dr. David Sutera, FMS alum and Assistant Professor of Media Communica ons at Doane University in Crete, Nebraska, had his ar cle “Riefenstahl, Ichikawa, and Greenspan: The Ideological Impact of Olympic Documentary Films,” translated into Chinese by Gao Jiajia, a graduate student at Beijing Sport University in China, and published in the most recent issue of the Chinese academic journal The Journal of Sports and Science, which is sponsored by the provincial level sports science research ins tute and is a member of the Na onal Core Journals in China. The translated ar cle is available on three databases including the Chinese Social Sciences Cita on Index (CSSCI0, the Chinese Core Journals, and the Chinese Core Journals of Humani es and Social Sciences. Dr. Sutera originally published this ar cle as part of an edited monograph

tled Iden ty and Myth in Sports Documentaries authored by Sutera in conjunc on with another KU FMS alum, Dr. Zachary Ingle. Dr. Ron Wilson, KU FMS Lecture and wri ng instructor, was instrumental in helping Dr. Sutera edit and publish this ar cle as a chapter in Iden ty and Myth in Sports Documentaries in 2013. The ar cle can be found at here h p://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IpZ kr8yXly0544HKjXeQ

Trailer link: h ps://vimeo.com/travisdiesing/stacksofficialtrailer

Dr. Mark von Schlemmer (MA 1990, Ph.D. 2010) an Associate Professor of Communica on and Film at the University of Central Missouri, was honored with the UCM Faculty Scholar Award for Research in the Crea ve Works category for his work on Gordon Parks Elementary and Fast Break: The Legendary John McLendon – two films directed by KU's Kevin Willmo that Mark edited and co‐wrote. The award was part of the Graduate Scholars Symposium, sponsored by Graduate Educa on and Research program at UCM. Mark von Schlemmer’s latest edi ng/wri ng collabora on with Willmo , the feature length documentary film William Allen White: What's the Ma er with Kansas, premiered on April 25 at the celebra on of the sesquicentennial of William Allen White’s birth and was well received ("who expected a documentary that would make me both laugh and cry?" one audience member was heard to say). Look for it to air later this year on PBS affiliated sta ons.

TH&F alum Patrick Rea’s film, Belong to Us, won the Best Heartland Narra ve Feature category at the Kansas City FilmFest 2018 Awards. Congratula ons!

T h e D e p a r t m e n t o f F i l m a n d M e d i a S t u d i e s T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f K a n s a s

Department of Film and Media Studies

Summerfield Hall, Suite 230

1300 Sunnyside Avenue

Lawrence, KS 66045

Phone: 785‐864‐1340

E‐mail: [email protected]

Send your news items and

updates to Karla Conrad at

[email protected].

May 2018

Academic Calendar

May 3 ‐ Last day of classes

May 4 ‐ Stop day

May 7 ‐ First day of finals

May 11 ‐ Last day of finals

May 11 ‐ School of the Arts Convoca on

May 13 ‐ Commencement

Equipment Check‐in: 10:00 a.m.— 12:00 p.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Equipment Check‐out: 1:00 p.m.— 3:00 p.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Sign‐up to check‐out equipment in the binder on the counter in 230 Summerfield.

Sign‐up for edi ng rooms by signing the edit room schedule posted on the edi ng room door (418b Summerfield). Pick up the key in the FMS office (230 Summerfield).

Check with your instructor or John McCluskey, Assistant Technical Director, for more informa on.

Miranda Cook

Academic Advisor

230 Summerfield Hall

[email protected]

785‐864‐3500

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Are you a Film & Media Studies (or Theatre & Film)

alum? We’d love to hear from you. Go to h ps://

film.ku.edu/alumni‐submissions to update your informa on with us, so we

can add you to the impressive ranks of our

alumni.

Twi er: @KUFMS, @KUSchoolofArts, @KUCollege

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