Oscar-winner Kevin Willmott returns to IU after 11 years; BFCA celebrates his new collection

Eleven years after his initial visit in 2013, Oscar-winning screenwriter, director, producer, and University of Kansas Professor Emeritus Kevin Willmott returned to IU Sept. 24-26. During his visit, Willmott participated in a series of events titled “By Any Means Necessary!,” which included screenings of his films “The 24th” and “No Place Like Home.” The programming concluded with a screening of the film “BlacKkKlansman,” for which Willmott won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.
Associate professor and Director of the Black Film Center & Archive Novotny Lawrence kicked off the “BlacKkKlansman” screening by stating that by “bringing in scholars, artists, and practitioners, we create a symbiotic relationship in which we can elevate their work, and they can elevate ours.”
A Q&A followed the screening, which began with Lawrence asking Willmott about the process of writing the script for the film. Willmott shared that he and Spike Lee collaborated in re-writing a previously existing script loosely based on the book “Black Klansman” by Ron Stallworth.
“Ron Stallworth was such a great policeman, he would end up stopping these guys before they really did anything,” Willmott explained as the “problem” with the script.
“So, there was no third act to the movie.”

Although Willmott ended up fictionalizing the third act, the core of the film is true.
When fielding questions from the audience, a student asked Willmott, “What does writing this movie, not just as a Black man, but as a Black writer in the industry mean to you?”
Willmott shared that the bulk of his writing focuses on race and history, and he feels very fortunate that he was able to find and create that niche for himself within the industry. Willmott feels that a special aspect of his work is “getting the chance to own the history, and not allow the history to own us.”

Ultimately, he makes movies as a way to help the audience find ownership in history in the same way he has.
When asked what advice he would give young aspiring screenwriters, he shared that when making a name for himself, he never wrote about what the industry wanted, but about what he wanted.
“When writing about the things you care about, and the things that interest you, no matter if they sound commercial or not, you find your voice.”
Willmott shared that he earned his Academy Award nomination without an agent. Hollywood found him working in Kansas because they wanted his original, true, and unique voice.