UCM DMP Professors Partner With Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker

Two UCM Digital Media Production professors have contributed to a film celebrating the life of a regional hero. From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Kevin Willmott, “The Heroic True-Life Adventures of Alvin Brooks” tells the story of a man who has devoted more than six decades to bettering the lives of Kansas City residents.

UCM Film and Editing Production Professor Mark von Schlemmer served as editor and co-writer of the documentary, his 11th film project with Willmott.

Von Schlemmer found a talented illustrator with just the right style and sense of humor for the film’s visual effects and animation in Eric Newsom, a fellow professor in UCM’s Department of Communication and Digital Media Production.

“Kevin and I were really looking for a way to bring Mr. Brooks’ great stories to life, but of course there’s no footage of him 90 years ago,” von Schlemmer said. “Eric came up with an animation style that captures Brooks’ storytelling flair.”

Brooks was one of the first Black police officers in Kansas City and the first Black department head in city government. He founded the AdHoc Group Against Crime, advocated for civil rights and earned national acclaim for his work fighting neighborhood crime. Brooks received the Harry S. Truman Public Service Award in 2016 and was named Kansas Citian of the Year in 2019. He continues his activism today at age 93.

The screening this spring, which kicked off UCM’s Politics and Social Justice Week, was by no means the first time Alvin Brooks had been on campus. Brooks served on the university’s Board of Regents in the 1970s under President Warren C. Lovinger. He received an honorary doctorate from UCM in 2006.

Pictured at top are UCM Professor Mark von Schlemmer, former Kansas City Police Officer Alvin Brooks, former Kansas City Councilmember Jermaine Reed and UCM Associate Professor Eric Newsom at the March 31 on-campus screening of the new documentary about Brooks’ life.