On July 6, 2023, the Show MO ACT was passed–a bill incentivizing filmmakers and production companies to shoot in Missouri through a special tax credit. This has been a long-awaited moment for those in the film industry and residents across Missouri; but several Black filmmakers are ringing the alarm that this bill disproportionately incentivizes filming in white, rural areas of Missouri only. 

Filmmakers Khalid Abdulqaadir and Corey McCartney share their plight as two Black filmmakers who have been deliberately overlooked by legislators and media alike in their call for rewriting the most critical components of this bill.

A Break Down Of The Show MO Act 

According to the Show MO Act also known as SB 94, “For all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, a taxpayer shall be allowed a tax credit equal to twenty percent of qualifying expenses.” Additional qualifications allow a film production to receive a tax credit equal to 50 percent of qualifying expenses. 

The qualifications that present disproportionate filming are as follows: 

• #3: “An additional five percent may be earned for qualifying expenses if at least fifteen percent of the qualified motion media production project filmed in Missouri takes place in a rural or blighted area in Missouri.” 
• #6: “The total dollar amount of tax credits authorized pursuant to subdivision of this subsection shall be increased by ten percent for qualified film production projects located in a county of the second, third, or fourth class.”
  • (Examples of these areas are Lafayette County, Johnson County, and Pettis County)

In layman’s terms, this bill’s third and sixth qualifications further incentivize filmmakers and incentivize filming in small Missouri towns, where the populations of people of color and the presence of diverse filmmakers and productions are minute. They prioritize productions in predominantly white communities and allow the already predominantly white-run film community–that arguably snuggly fits into the definition of a cabal–to capitalize the most.

When the Show MO Act was being drafted, not only was this inequity noticed, but so was the absence of language to include local filmmakers, minorities, and women. AGA Productions noticed this in 2022.

AGA Productions is a Disabled Veteran Black-owned Film Production Company founded by Khalid Abdulqaadir and Corey McCartney in 2018. In 2019, the duo also founded their non-profit, FACE KC (Filmmakers Artists and Creatives for Empowerment), which aims to use film as a tool to prevent gun violence. Since then, the duo has accumulated a wealth of success and notoriety. 

Actor and film producer Gerald Butler recently acquired the rights to one of their films. They have done production work for BET, FOX, and PBS. Abdulqaadir was hand-selected to be trained by the Oscars Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He has also written for the New York Times and the Boston Globe. McCartney, in his own right, has produced for the viral sensation BEL-AIR in 2019. He has also been featured in the KC Star and Voyage LA, 

Utilizing principals from Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), their company has also been able to foster change in the Kansas City community using the art of filmmaking. A primary example is their film ‘Disarmed,’ which stopped an act of gun violence between two Black men, effectively saving their lives and reducing the cyclical effect of violence. 

“This is what’s at stake. We were able to reduce gun violence out of our own pocket. Without equity in our industry, we’re unable to scale our impact accordingly.” Khalid said. 

As filmmakers in Missouri and ones with an important mission, they were led to join Film in MO, a Missouri multimedia association crucial in creating and advocating for the Show MO Act. By joining and sponsoring Film in MO, they believed the organization would represent all their members.

However, while reading the Show MO Act draft, Abdulqaadir and McCartney realized that the language was not representative of the people who comprise the organization or the filmmakers who reside in Missouri as a whole.

They brought this realization to the leadership of Film in MO and asked the bill to be amended to include incentives to hire minorities, women, and local filmmakers. They were met with responses like, ‘If we put language like that in the bill, the Republicans won’t let the bill pass because it’s too close to diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ Abduqaadir said.  Abdulqaadir and McCartney were told to wait for programs that would support filmmakers like themselves, but they would only come after the bill passed; the duo became frustrated that predominantly white filmmakers were baked into the bill by default, but Black filmmakers, for example, had to wait and hopefully gain support afterward.

The exclusion of language to represent minorities, women, and local filmmakers, as well as the unwillingness to amend it, is representative of the biases that are held by the State and their lack of minority participation over the past three decades. Because of this, it appears as though Missouri’s film industry will follow in the footsteps of the recent marijuana industry––by refusing to make space and instead creating barriers for communities of color. 

The owners of AGA Productions decided to take the matter to Steph Shannon, the former Kansas City Film Commissioner. They were met with the same blatant disregard and unwillingness to include language or even advocate for including language that would support diverse filmmakers and productions. 

That same year, they met with Mayor Quinton Lucas about their gun violence prevention plan with FACE KC, which includes amending the Kansas City film tax rebate to include a minority participation goal. The current Kansas City-specific tax rebate is 10% with a spending cap. Abdulqaadir and McCartney presented a plan that would allow film productions to receive an 8% tax rebate and an additional 2% to meet minority participation goals. Neither Mayor Lucas–nor anyone from his team–followed up after this meeting.

Before the bill was passed, Abdulqaadir and McCartney contacted various film entities that portrayed themselves as progressive and included diversity, equity, and inclusion in their missions. One was Grow Kansas Film, a Kansas multimedia association that advocated for the film tax incentive in the state of Kansas. However, when Abdulqaadir contacted them and asked “how they plan to make the bill more representative,” he was met with a response that claimed the organization was committed to diversity and inclusion, yet wholly ignored the equity component and provided no clear example of how they would instate that into the bill.

Abdulqaadir sent a follow-up email providing an example of how minority participation could be written into the bill using other cities as an example, but it was meant with silence. He sent a follow-up email and was again met with silence.

Abdulqaadir and McCartney continued to advocate for themselves and others for additional language in the bill, but they were ostracized by many in Missouri’s film community. “It has been very isolating,” McCartney said. 

In response to their advocacy, they were shunned. But it didn’t make them silent.

They turned to the media to expose this blatant example of systematic injustice.  However, the press echoed the apathetic responses of the predominantly white film community. 

The Media’s Unwillingness To Cover Abdulqaadir and McCartney’s Story

On October 22, 2022, Abdulqaadir contacted Zach Wilson at KCUR with information about rural areas being incentivized twice in the tax bill. He also included the inequity this presents for diverse filmmakers in Missouri and how writers and champions of that bill, from Cole Payne and Michelle Davidson with Film in MO to Steph Shannon, the then-Kansas City film commissioner, disregarded amending the language to include diverse filmmakers.

Abdulqaadir also predicted a scenario for KCUR in which the coming NFL Draft, the building of new soccer stadiums, and the tax bill in its current state threatened to create an economic and opportunity barrier for filmmakers of color to access a fair share of digital media work.

Instead of a response from Zach Wilson or anyone else who was copied in the email to Wilson, Abdulqaadir received an aggressive text message from the former Film Commissioner asking if he was pitching a story about her. The Film Commissioner told Abdulqaadir not to “blow up” the film office. 

Surprised at this message, Abdulqaadir sent an email back to Zach Wilson and those copied on the original email, questioning why he had received a message from the Commissioner but no response from KCUR.

Danette K. Alexander, a producer for KCUR’s Up To Date, responded, “Part of our process is to conduct background research and seek verification, which is standard in journalism. Our contacting the KC Film Office was not to ‘tip-off’ the office but to ask the questions you did to see if the response would be the same or if more information might be forthcoming.”  

In response, Abdulqaadir sent two follow-up emails. The first thanked Alexander for her clarification. The second followed up on the story and provided more information on The KC Film Office, which included its lack of data collection, lack of equity for minorities and women, and refusal to acknowledge that it aids in ensuring that a “small group of individuals and their businesses consistently secure the majority of film/media contracts.” 

Abdulqaadir’s emails were met with silence. The film office had “effectively killed the story.” 

That same year, Abdulqaadir contacted NPR Management about KCUR ignoring marginalized voices and refusing to investigate further. After trading emails back and forth, CJ Janvoy, the Director of Content Journalism, wrote, “But considering the way all of this has gone, I also don’t think we’re the right media organization to be the voice for this story at this time.

Both Abdulqaadir and McCartney received silence or a refusal to write the story when they contacted various news outlets.

When Abdulqaadir contacted Megan Abundis, a reporter for KSHB 41, about the story she wrote, ‘Going 360 | Film incentives create new opportunities for all Kansas Citians,’ and explained why the use of the word ‘all’ in the title of the article and her choice of who to represent in the article was misleading, he was met with silence.

Recently, when McCartney explained the inequities within the bill and Kansas City’s filmmaking community that Sharon Chen from KCTV5 failed to include in her story about the act, he was met with silence. 

In the wake of Abdulqaadir’s communication with KCUR about Black filmmakers, KCUR suddenly told a story about how the Kansas City film industry was being diversified. KCUR’s Steve Kraske and Reginald David wrote an article titled, ‘3 Black filmmakers are diversifying Kansas City’s film industry.’ Abdulqaadir reached out to Kraske and Davis.  Again, he was met with silence and an unwillingness to investigate further.

Despite the silence, however, he and McCartney have continued to fight for their fellow Black, minority, and female filmmakers. However, the constant refusal to amplify their voices and the voices they are advocating for has been an exhausting experience. 

How Does This Affect Other Black Filmmakers? 

This bill affects more than AGA Productions. When interviewed by Abdulqaadir and McCartney about how this affects others, McCartney said, “Due to the current structure of the film industry, there is a lack of minority representation in above-the-line positions, which directly results in a lack of Black people hired for digital media jobs.” Abdulqaadir added, “There are a handful of token Black filmmakers who get hired repeatedly to present the appearance of equity, and they, of course, would say there aren’t any issues, but that’s because they have to ‘play nice’ to maintain their livelihoods.”  

It’s clear that this bill worsens local Black filmmakers’ dependency on white productions and further unequips them from being able to participate in, lead, or create the productions they dream of. Productions that are desperately needed to build and empower Black imaginations and communities locally. 

This bill doesn’t end with representing the systematic issues apparent in Kansas City’s and Missouri’s film industry. It is reflective of the national film industry, especially Hollywood.

Taraji P. Henson, an award-winning actress, expressed Hollywood’s unwillingness to pay Black actresses what they are worth or provide them with opportunities to showcase their wealth of talent. Viola Davis has echoed the same sentiments, and Monique has as well.

Countless notable Black actors, producers, and directors have expressed this. Yet bills like the Show MO Act, organizations like Film in MO, and media organizations like KCUR refuse and stifle equity in an industry whose inherent mission is to provide everyone with a voice and the resources to share it.

Unlike its counterparts, AGA Productions has been able to invest in the community that it broadcasts in its films. AGA Productions not only tells Black stories but also makes sure to tell stories written by Black people and provides an opportunity for the entirety of Kansas City’s community, especially the underserved and disenfranchised, to participate.

Their films build and foster community. Grassroots projects like ‘Disarmed’ are beautiful examples of how gun violence can be reduced by film and other creative means instead of by state-sanctioned violence or the oppressive carceral system. Yet because of the aforementioned legislation, which was written to exclude and disproportionately incentivize, films that possess the same power as “Disarmed’ and production companies that have the same goals and effects as AGA Productions will not be able to have the impact needed to change, grow, and nurture the communities that need it the most.