KU News Release

LAWRENCE — The Lawrence premiere of “The Only Good Indian,” the newest feature film by University of Kansas professor Kevin Willmott, will benefit KU’s Department of Film and Media Studies.

The benefit premiere will take place at 7:05 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St. Half of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to KU Friends of Film to support the Department of Film and Media Studies. The KU Friends of Film fund is managed by KU Endowment. The same night, a 9:40 p.m. screening will kick off the initial theatrical run of the film.

In most of his films, Willmott, associate professor of film and media studies, focuses on stories with social and political themes that Hollywood isn’t likely to produce and taps local talent, including KU faculty, students and alumni, to film in Kansas. “The Only Good Indian” is no exception.

The script was written by KU business alumnus Thomas L. Carmody, of Lawrence, and was inspired by the history of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence. Haskell originated in 1884 as a federal industrial training school for children from American Indian and Alaska Native tribes.

Set in the early 1900s, the film’s action centers on a Kickapoo child forcibly taken from his family and placed under guard in a government boarding school. As a teen, the captive youth escapes to try to return to his home, only to be tracked by a bounty hunter. Both the hunted teen and his bounty hunter, who is Cherokee, are pursued by an Indian fighter sheriff.

Although Willmott recruited a few Hollywood actors — including Wes Studi, a Cherokee originally from Oklahoma, to play the bounty hunter — most of the cast and crew are from KU, Haskell and the Kickapoo Indian Reservation near Horton. Others were recruited from across the state where scenes were filmed, including Cottonwood Falls, Easton, Topeka and Wichita.

As with his earlier films, including “Ninth Street,” “CSA: Confederate States of America” and “The Battle for Bunker Hill,” Willmott selects stories outside the mainstream — stories that “just won’t be told any other way.” He prefers Kansas-based stories that reflect on concepts that have shaped national and world opinion.

In January, Willmott and two colleagues, Matthew Jacobson and Robert Hurst, took several KU students to the Sundance Film Festival for the premiere of “The Only Good Indian.” It was Willmott’s second invitation to Sundance and the third for Jacobson, associate professor and cinematographer. For this film, Jacobson and Jeremy Osbern, a 2004 KU film alumnus, shared credit as directors of photography. In 2004, Jacobson was at Sundance as director of photography for “CSA: Confederate States of America” and in 2003 as director of photography for the documentary, “Bukowski: Born Into This.”

Other KU faculty working on “The Only Good Indian” include Kip Haaheim, associate professor of music; and Tami Hughes and Hung Choo Peter Chun, both assistant professors of music.

“The Only Good Indian” previously screened at the Berlinale European Film Market in Berlin, the Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado Springs, the Newport Beach Film Festival in California, Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival in Michigan, Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, the Cherokee International Film Festival in Tulsa and the KC Film Fest in Missouri. Upcoming screenings include the St. Louis Film Festival, the American Indian Film Festival, the Alaska International Film Festival and the Santa Fe Film Festival.

More information about the film is online at www.TheOnlyGoodIndian.com.

Screen credits include a number KU alumni identified here by home city, responsibility, degree year and major.

BUTLER COUNTY
From Augusta
Sean Blake, supervising editor, 2001 theatre and film graduate, now a Lawrence resident

DICKINSON COUNTY
From Solomon
Megan Misenhelter, second unit camera assistant, 2009 theatre and film graduate

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence
Alexander R. Backus, production assistant, senior in film and media studies

Misti Boland, art director, 2002 theatre and film graduate

Thomas L. Carmody, writer, 1982 bachelor’s degree in business administration and a 1980 bachelor’s degree in business

Tyler Carmody, still photographer and intern coordinator, 2009 theatre and film graduate

Victoria Goetz, post production supervisor and assistant editor, 1996 master’s degree in nursing and 1988 bachelor’s degree in nursing

Matthew Hrovat, second unit swing grip, 2009 graduate in theatre and film

Christopher J. Hurte, production assistant, senior in film and media studies

Sara Huslig, transportation captain, 2007 English graduate

Greg Hurd, producer, 1976 English graduate

Laura Kirk, actress, 1989 theatre and film graduate

W. Scott Richardson, producer, 1979 political science graduate

Mark von Schlemmer, editor, 1990 master’s degree in theatre and media arts, originally from Baldwin City

Christopher Wheatley, actor, 2007 theatre and film graduate

FORD COUNTY AND HODGEMAN COUNTY
From Dodge City and Jetmore
Michael J. Stoecker, “B” camera operator/key grip, 2003 theatre and film graduate

JACKSON COUNTY
From Hoyt
Derek Rausch, digital effects, attended KU in 1994

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Leawood
Kip Niven, actor, 1968 theatre graduate

From Lenexa and Binghamton, N.Y.
David Michael Daneman, properties master, 2004 fall graduate in theatre and film

From Olathe
Stephen Deaver, HD conform and color correction, 2003 theatre and film graduate

Chrystal Grondin, key set production assistant, attended KU in 2001

Nicholas “Nick” Frank Hughes, key set production assistant, 2006 theatre and film graduate

Tony M. Ontiveros, loader, 2006 theatre and film graduate

From Overland Park
Bret Copeland, second unit swing grip, 2008 theatre and film graduate

Tony Grossi, actor and second unit camera operator, 2001 philosophy graduate, also from Chicago

Taylor A. Sloan, third grip, 2007 theatre and film graduate

Christopher C.E. Weaver, first assistant director, 2001 theatre and film graduate

From Prairie Village
Franco Yin Dean Leng, video assist, 2008 theatre and film graduate

Sarah E. Tucker, loader, senior in film and media studies

SEDGWICK COUNTY
From Wichita
Aaron M. Brown, loader, attended KU in 2007

Tyler Doehring, production assistant, 2009 theatre and film graduate

SHAWNEE COUNTY
From Topeka
Tommy Allen Gish, driver, 2007 theatre and film graduate

Jonathan Tenholder, second unit swing grip, 2009 theatre and film graduate

WASHINGTON COUNTY
From Greenleaf
Tristan Noelle, second unit swing grip, 2008 theatre and film graduate

WICHITA COUNTY
From Leoti
Jonathan E. Breitkreutz, best boy electric, 2004 theatre and film graduate

CALIFORNIA
From Los Angeles
Thad Nurski, editor, 2008 theatre and film graduate, originally from St. Joseph, Mo.

MASSACHUSETTS
From Provincetown
J.T. O’Neal, co-executive producer, 1970 art history and 1985 medicine graduate

MISSOURI
From Blue Springs
Nicole “Niki” Newland, loader, 2001 theatre and film graduate

From St. Joseph
Thad Nurski. SEE CALIFORNIA

From Trimbel
Christopher Elliott Wheeler, driver, 1996 communication studies graduate

NEBRASKA
From Omaha
Christopher Dean Blunk, electrician, 2004 theatre and film graduate

NEW YORK
From Binghamton
David Michael Daneman. SEE JOHNSON COUNTY

WASHINGTON
From Bellingham
Muriel Green, loader and second unit camera operator, senior in film and media studies