The Film Commission of Greater Kansas City has created The Robert Altman Emerging Filmmakers Fund, which is a sustainable fund designed to help filmmakers get their short film productions off the ground. This new fund will leverage individual, institutional, charitable and corporate support to reach critical mass. All donations go the the Commission.

We hope you’ll consider either donating to the fund or joining the cause on Facebook and telling your friends about it. Donations can be made anonymously through Facebook with any major credit card or Paypal account.

Here are some reasons why we think this fund is important:

1. As cities like Austin, Philadelphia and Baltimore have shown, filmmaking is an economically viable driver for local economies outside of LA and NYC.
2. Filmmakers develop and hone their style and creative voice by making short films.
3. If you give filmmakers money to make their short films, they are more likely to develop into feature filmmakers.
4. The more we help filmmakers develop into feature filmmakers, the more likely they are to make feature films here that benefit our local economy.
5. The Kansas City area has developed sustainable ways to support visual and performing arts, but is lacking a mechanism to help filmmakers.

Thanks in advance for all your support and if you have any questions you can email the Fund Director/Founder, Justin Gardner, at marketing@kcfilm.com.

The Kansas City Power & Light District or Power & Light District is a shopping and entertainment district in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, United States, developed by the Cordish Company of Baltimore, Maryland and designed by 360 Architecture. The district comprises nine blocks on the south side of the downtown loop. It is located between Baltimore Avenue to the west, Grand Boulevard to the east, 12th Street to the north, and Interstate 670 to the south.  The $850 million “mixed-use” district is one of the largest development projects in the Midwestern United States.  The Power & Light District is one of only a few places in the United States where possession and consumption of open containers of alcoholic beverages are allowed on the street, although they remain prohibited on the street throughout the rest of Kansas City.

River Market stretches north of the downtown Interstate 70 loop to the Missouri River, and is bordered by the Broadway Bridge on the west and the Heart of America Bridge on the east. The area encompasses the location in which Kansas City was first founded. The market name comes from its large open air farmers’ market, the southern section of which was the public square in the mid 1800s.

It derives its “Westport Landing” name because it was the dock on the Missouri River for the exchange of goods going to the community of Westport three miles to the south on higher ground that was operated by John Calvin McCoy. McCoy was to lead a group of settlers to created the “Town of Kansas” in the neighborhood in 1850 which in turn became the “City of Kansas” in 1853.

The Quay name was applied to the neighborhood in the 1970s by developer Marion A. Trozzolo to capitalize on the neighborhood’s early French connections as a fur trading post operated by François Chouteau of the powerful Chouteau clan starting in 1821. Trozzolo’s vision was to make this neighborhood a destination for restaurants and bohemian shops. A mob war developed and three establishments burned or were blown up and several mobsters were killed. The war was part of an overall mob war that ultimately resulted in the mob being pushed out of influence of the Las Vegas casinos that was highlighted in the movie Casino.

The Country Club Plaza (often referred to as the Plaza) is an upscale shopping district and residential neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile.  The 55 acre (223,000 m²) site is about four miles (6.44 km) south of downtown, between 45th and 51st streets to the north and south and between Broadway and Madison Street to the east and west. The Kansas state line is one mile (1.6 km) to the west. Established in 1923 by J. C. Nichols and designed architecturally after Seville, Spain, the Plaza comprises high-end retail establishments, restaurants, and entertainment venues, as well as offices. The neighborhoods surrounding the Plaza consist of apartment buildings and upscale houses, especially those of the Country Club District built along Ward Parkway on the Plaza’s southern and southwestern side. The Country Club Plaza is named in the Project for Public Spaces’ list 60 of the World’s Great Places.

The World Wildlife Fund has designated the Flint Hills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains.  Explorer Zebulon Pike first coined the name the Flint Hills in 1806 when he entered into his journal, “passed very ruff flint hills”.

Regions of Kansas and Oklahoma, showing the Flint HillsThe Flint Hills were created approximately 250 million years ago during the Permian Period. During this time much of the Midwest, including Kansas and Oklahoma, were covered with shallow seas. As a result, much of the Flint Hills are composed of limestone and shale with plentiful fossils of prehistoric sea creatures. The most notable layer of chert-bearing limestone is the Florence Limestone Member. It is approximately 45 feet thick; numerous roadcuts of the Florence Member are prominent along Interstate 70 in Riley County, Kansas. Many of the honey-colored limestones have been used for building blocks. The non-chert-bearing limetones are best for this, since the chert is extremely hard to cut, yet it can fracture quite easily.

Beginning in the mid-1800s homesteaders replaced the American Indian in the Flint Hills. Due to shallow outcroppings of limestone and chert, farming was not practical over much of the area, and cattle ranching became the main agricultural activity in the region. Still sparsely developed, the Flint Hills represent the last expanse of tallgrass prairie in the nation. There are four tallgrass prairie preserves in the Flint Hills, the largest of which, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, also boasts the largest population of bison in Oklahoma. The other preserves, all located in Kansas, are the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Flint Hills Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and the Konza Prairie Biological Research Station.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Elmwood Cemetery is rich in history through the stories of the lives of many of Kansas City’s early founders. A large number of them helped shaped what Kansas City has become today. Many had great impact nationally.

Elmwood is the final resting place for twelve former Kansas City mayors, over 2,000 veterans (including 800 from the Civil War), and scores of civic and business leaders.

Elmwood is also the final resting place for over 36,000 souls whose stories have, before now, been remembered only by their families and close friends.

Additionally, the cemetery was recently featured in the film Last Will and shots of it can be found in the trailer at the movie’s website

Here are some photos of this gorgeous, historic location:

For more information, please visit the Elmwood Cemetery Society’s website.

Sprint Center is a large, multi-use indoor arena in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. [1] The building is located at 14th Street and Grand Boulevard, on the east side of the Power & Light District. The arena’s naming rights partner is the telecommunications company Sprint, whose world headquarters is in nearby Overland Park, Kansas.

The Crossroads Arts District is an historic neighborhood near downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA, centered at approximately 19th Street and Baltimore Avenue, between Downtown’s Central Business District and Crown Center. It is the city’s main art gallery district and center for the visual arts. Dozens of galleries are located in its renovated warehouses and industrial buildings. It is also home to numerous restaurants (including one operated by Lidia Bastianich), housewares shops, architects, designers, and other visual artists. As well, the district has several live music venues.

Numerous buildings in the neighborhood are on the National Register of Historic Places including the TWA Corporate Headquarters’ Building and the Western Auto Building.

Art galleries generally open new shows on the first Friday of each month from 6 to 9 pm. This has become one of the region’s most popular regular events as thousands of people flock to the Crossroads for gallery “open houses” amidst the Crossroads’s unique atmosphere.

There are over 60 galleries in the Crossroad’s district, making it one of the five largest arts districts in the US.

Kansas City, Missouri, is often abbreviated as “KCMO”, or simply “KC” (both abbreviations often refer to the metro area). It is officially nicknamed the City of Fountains. With over 200 fountains, the city claims to have the second most in the world, just behind Rome.