Opening

An art opening, a real estate developer, a resolute gallery owner and a cataclysmic cyclone form the key coordinates of this dramatic film that reveals in no uncertain terms that we're not in Dorothy's Kansas any more. Martha is an emerging young painter holding her first big exhibition at a gallery in Kansas City's rapidly transforming downtown district. The city's new crop of beautiful people are all in attendance, including Martha's rival, Martha's lover and her lover's unsuspecting husband. Flirtation, gentrification and backroom development deals unfold as egos, ideals, trust and betrayal roil and burst with the tornado's unstoppable force.

Directed by Rob Nilsson (winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance) in collaboration with Kansas City Filmmakers, Opening was shot in just three days and sizzles with the gripping immediacy of real lives caught in the midst of irrevocable change.  In Nilsson's Direct Action Cinema tradition, the cast from the Kansas City Filmmakers improvised their own dialogue and crafted their own characters. "Opening" premiered at the 2006 Mill Valley Film Festival.