Bunker Hill
Topeka Premiere of a Kevin Willmott Film

Saturday, October 25, 2008 • 7:00 p.m.
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site
1515 SE Monroe • Topeka, Kansas

Free and open to public
RSVP by October 23, 2008 to
(785) 235-3939 or brownfound@juno.com

The movie Bunker Hill is the story of former Wall Street executive Peter Salem (James McDaniel of NYPD Blue fame) who heads for the small town of Bunker Hill, Kansas, where his ex-wife (actress Laura Kirk) and their children have started a new life alongside a powerful local leader, Jim McLain (actor Kevin Greer). Soon after Salem arrives all power is lost – no electricity, cars and computers stop functioning...leaving all to wonder if this is the rapture? a terrorist attack? or aliens?

Cut off from the world the town's militant past reawakens, leading to unchecked fear and suspicion of the elderly Pakistani immigrant who owns a local business. Fear finally turns to the formation of an armed posse, which leads to torture, illegal searches and eventually murder.

How would you react when faced with an unseen, unknown, yet very real threat?

Kevin Willmott is a screenwriter, filmmaker, playwright, actor and activist. He grew up in Junction City, Kansas, received his BA in drama from Marymount College and after graduation, worked as a peace and civil rights activist, fighting for the rights of the poor. He helped create two Catholic Worker shelters for the homeless and pressed for the integration of several long standing segregated institutions. Kevin attended New York University for graduate studies and Tisch School of the Arts, receiving several writing awards and his MFA in dramatic writing.

His play, T-Money and Wolf, co-written with Rick Averill, dealing with contemporary gang violence, was selected as part of the New Vision/New Voices series produced by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As screenwriter, Kevin co-wrote Shields Green and the Gospel of John Brown with Mitch Brian and Civilized Tribes for producer Robert Lawrence and 20th Century Fox. Producer and director Oliver Stone hired Kevin to co-write Little Brown Brothers, about the Philippine insurrection and to adapt the book, Marching to Valhalla, by Michael Blake. For television, Kevin cowrote House of Getty and The 70s, both mini-series for NBC. His first film Ninth Street, was an independent feature film, starring Martin Sheen and Isaac Hayes.

Download program mailer (315 KB PDF).

Presented by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equity, Excellence and Research and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site as part of the 2008-2009 program series, Race and the American Creed. Download the 2008-2009 program brochure (1.8 MB PDF).

All Rights Reserved.
Created: September 2, 2008; revised: October 20, 2008.
URL: http://brownvboard.org/programs/200810bunkerhill.htm.