The movie is called Destination: Planet Negro and it is as twisted, smart and funny as the title implies.
KEVIN WILLMOTT podcast excerpt: "I know 'Destination: Planet Negro' was so crazy that I wasn't even going to talk to people about funding it. I'm a professor at the University of Kansas; this is my seventh feature film. I used the equipment at KU, then I pulled in favors from all my buddies that were in my other movies. The budget for 'Planet Negro' was $5,000. Five-thousand dollars! Everybody worked for free. What I spent the $5,000 on was meals. The cinematographer is a professor I work with; he built the spaceship. The robot was built by another buddy.He built it from stuff he had lying around. It took two years to make the movie. And I play one of the leads because I knew I would always show up!" KEVIN WILLMOTT podcast excerpt: "I have a film called 'CSA: Confederate States of America.' It imagines what happens if the South won the Civil War. That's how I met Spike Lee. He read a script called 'Gotta Give It Up.' That was 15 years ago. We tried to get is made a long time ago. He called me back"In his new film, he combines moments of great social satire – hello, Strom Thurmond! – with serious political points about race and sexuality. And it’s really, weirdly, funny, too.
Key interview moments:• 6:10 Destination Planet Negro writer/director/star Kevin Willmott explains how he made his movie for just $5,000;
• 19:00 A lifelong fan of 1950s sci-fi films, Willmott always loved seeing astronauts in leather jackets;
• 27:00 Willmott talks about crossing paths with Spike Lee and how they came to co-write Chi-Raq.
Destination: Planet Negro Website • Facebook • Twitter • IMDB
