Chances are, you’ve probably heard of famous movie blockbusters such as “Jaws,” “Jurassic Park,” or “Star Wars.” Kenneth Linn, the DHS AV teacher, has made a popular film of his own.
“God Save the Wings,” directed by Adam Knapp and Kenny Linn, is a feature-length documentary about a 1980s Wichita indoor soccer team called the Wings. While the team’s popularity dropped over the years, the Wings still left a lasting impact.
“They played when the Kansas Coliseum was still around and it sat 9,000-10,000 people and the entire place was just completely packed,” Linn said. “Their team colors were blue and orange and in the stands all you could see was just a sea of orange. Orange T-shirts, orange hats, the seats themselves were orange. It was just incredible.”
Linn’s filmmaking passion has not stopped with “God Save the Wings.” His most recent project is another documentary bound to make audiences around Wichita watch it.
“My current project is largely still in production so there’s not much I can share about it,” Linn said. “It’s a documentary about the Super Car Guy that made a lot of wacky commercials that kind of divided Wichita. Either everyone loved them or everyone hated them.”
“God Save the Wings” gained ground, breaking from the state lines of Kansas. A screening in Liverpool made the film become international. Soon followed by Spain, Berlin, and Wales.
“We screened it twice at the Wichita Orpheum and sold out both times. It’s just always good to see people come to your movie and enjoy it. Seeing them laugh when they’re supposed to laugh and get tense when there is drama is just always enjoyable,” Linn said.
Linn often preaches Murphy’s Law, stating that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. As with any production, something did go wrong.
“Rather than hiring an actual artist to draw everything out frame by frame, we had tons and tons of photographs,” Linn said. “So I spent months cutting out individual characters and turned that into our animation. We also tipped our hat to the Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam because our style is very similar to his and the documentary is filled with a lot of English humor.”
Prior to “God Save the Wings,” Linn made another documentary called “Out Here in Kansas.” The story documents a football player who came out as gay in 1990s Kansas.
“Obviously we’re wiser now but back in the ’90s it was a big deal for an offensive lineman to be homosexual,” Linn said. “It was shocking news to everyone that the roughest, toughest guy on the team was gay, so that’s what we did our story on.”
During the making of the short, Linn met Adam Knapp. Knapp later worked with Linn on making “God Save the Wings” and is doing the same with the current project.
“He had been a lifelong sports journalist and he did a story about Burt Humburg who came out to his teammates as gay in the 90s, and that’s what started ‘Out Here in Kansas,’” Linn said.