Since 2017, Kansas City has been designated as a UNESCO City of Musicfor its contributions to jazz, swing and blues.
UNESCO — which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization — maintains a Creative Cities Network of “cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development.”
Now the local nonprofit Creative City KC is partnering with the national thinktank uThinkIndigo to train students in Kansas City about the impact of music in filmmaking.
Two-time Academy Award winning sound engineer Willie D. Burton and veteran film and TV producer Dorez Douglas are organizing a music in film workshop this coming June. Burton won Oscars for his work on the films "Bird" and "Dreamgirls."
"Everybody wants to be in front of the camera," said Burton. "But there's so many jobs behind the scenes that are so important. We're trying to bring that to Kansas City and train people and teach people with professional instructors."
Their goal is to expose students to different elements of sound and filmmaking and eventually produce a short documentary with historic Kansas City sites like the Dunbar neighborhood and Quindaro Ruins.
Bukeka Blakemore, CEO of Creative City KC, said UNESCO is "very focused on preservation" and those areas especially "deserve to have their stories told."
Blakemore said the program is intended for students ages 16-22. Interested participants can email creativecitykc@gmail.com to learn more.
- Bukeka Blakemore, CEO, Creative City KC
- Willie D. Burton, two-time Academy Award-winning sound engineer
- Dorez Douglas, TV and Film Producer
