CinemaKC TV Series Returns With Focus On Local Filmmakers

The debut season of “CinemaKC,” showcasing the works and words of Kansas City area filmmakers, will be rebroadcast in its 14-week entirety.

Each half-hour episode is scheduled to air at 9:30 p.m. Saturdays (starting Aug. 13) and will be repeated at midnight Sundays (starting Aug. 14) on KSMO-TV, Channel 62.

“CinemaKC” spotlights short works of local filmmakers who are interviewed about their live-action and animated tales encompassing drama, comedy, romance, science-fiction and horror, as well as documentary projects.

“We are thrilled that our many talented filmmakers who are part of the ‘CinemaKC’ TV series will have their work seen by thousands of new viewers,” said John Shipp, founder of CinemaKC, a non-profit organization that promotes local filmmakers. “Thank you, KSMO, for your strong support of our robust and thriving film community.”

The first rebroadcast of “CinemaKC” looks at “405” and “World Builder,” two short films by four-time Emmy Award-nominated visual effects director and supervisor Bruce Branit, who studied at the University of Kansas. Branit’s credits include TV’s “Lost”, “Star Trek Voyager” and “The X-Files,” feature films “King Kong,” “Serenity” and “Sin City” and music videos by U2, Aerosmith and 50 Cent.

Branit’s three-minute short “405” is a pioneering viral video pegged to the unlikely spectacle of a jet airliner making an emergency landing on Los Angeles’ 405 freeway.

“Comedy ensues,” Branit said of his offbeat short. “It’s not any longer than it needs to be and doesn’t waste your time entertaining you.”

“ ‘World Builder’ is a much different film,” he said. “I was kind of experimenting with a longer narrative. The pitch line of it is ‘a strange man in a holographic world builds an idyllic world for the woman he loves.’ It’s entirely a green screen shoot, so everything other than the actors is computer generated.”

Branit sees “CinemaKC” as a TV show for the film-loving masses and also a confidence-builder for the burgeoning collective of Kansas City area filmmakers.

“It’s a great showcase,” Branit said. “And it’s a great yardstick for people to compare their work to and say, ‘I can do that. I’ve made a movie just like that. Maybe I should send it in.’ ”

“The feedback from those who have seen the show is very positive,” said Jerry Rapp, executive producer of “CinemaKC.” “As we move into the future with “CinemaKC,” we are seeing more collaboration occur and more dialogue about filmmaking being sparked.”

Aaron Barnhart, TV critic for The Kansas City Star, commended “CinemaKC” for the “quality of the films that are screened on the show and the tightly edited, HD-showcase nature of the interviews,” resulting in a program that is “more polished than most shows about film that air on national cable channels.”

Upcoming installments of “CinemaKC” will feature clips and commentaries from such imaginative local filmmakers as Ty Jones, whose “Out of Tune” traces the trip of a guitar through sundry hands and circumstances.

Emmy winner Todd Norris, whose “Wonderful Way Ahead Machine” transports an inventor eight decades into the future.

Kansas City Art Institute animation students Ryan Tonner (“Luchadorable”) and 2010 Student Academy Award winner Stuart Bury (“Dried Up”).

And keep an eye out for actress and Kansas City native Meagan Flynn, who played a stewardess opposite George Clooney in “Up in the Air,” and who stars in “Adrift,” a four-minute short about an arguing couple on the verge of revealing big secrets.

CinemaKC’s Strategic Partners include ArtsKC, Film Commission of Greater Kansas City, Blackberry Castle Productions, Film Society of Greater Kansas City, Independent Filmmaker’s Coalition, Kansas City Film Critics Circle, Kansas City FilmFest, Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, Kansas City Fringe Festival, Kansas City Screenwriters, Kansas City Urban Film Festival, Kansas City Women in Film and TV, Kansas Film Commission, Kansas International Film Festival, Missouri Film Commission, Missouri Motion Media Association, Reel Spirit, Thank You Walt Disney, UMKC Film Department, University of Kansas Film and Media Studies, Variety the Children’s Charity of Greater Kansas City and Women of the Motion Picture Industry.

CinemaKC’s Business Alliance includes Allied Integrated Marketing, Allied Theatre Craft, American Heartland Theatre, Haywood Marketing Communications, Kansas City Area Development Council, KC Stage Magazine, KC Studio, Prizm Productions, Screenland Armour, Screenland Crossroads, Screenland Crown Center, StagePort, Substream Music & Sound Design and T2.