A few words about Russ Thomas

Russ Thomas has been my best friend for so long, my parents still refer to him as “Eddie Haskell.” (I’ll make sure Adam doesn’t get into any trouble tonight, Mr. and Mrs. Knapp!”) I helped Russ and his family move from Kansas to his wife’s hometown of Orrville, Ohio a couple years ago. That was the same week he told me he and Jenn wanted to be executive producers for “Out Here In Kansas.”

Here’s the weird part, though. They’ve gone all these months without seeing it, because I wouldn’t send them a link. I kept thinking it was going to play at a film festival near them, or that they’d catch one of our screenings on a trip back to Kansas. I really wanted them to see it on a big screen, but never happened.

Fortunately, they have a pretty large television at home. I finally emailed Russ a link so he and Jenn could watch it.

Russ called me the next morning, which was yesterday. He said following the movie, he and Jenn had a long discussion about what it meant to them. They didn’t agree on everything, but that was OK.

Then Russ and I spent the next 30 minutes talking about what it meant to us. Really, that’s a huge reason why I wanted to make “Out Here In Kansas” in the first place.