This film was made as a pre-launch for our 2019 Super Bowl commercial. It takes place on a street in West Point, Georgia (where Kias are built). Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of West Point. No one has. Its obscurity is part of the idea. The film announces that we have set aside the big celebrity paycheck typically used to rent famous talent for a Super Bowl commercial, and converted that money toward a Great Unknowns scholarship fund. The trajectory is simple. A wall of TVs blanketed in glamour, paparazzi, and red carpet. A beautiful starlet spins for the camera. One by one, the TVs “change channels” to a filmic portrait of someone from West Georgia.

This year The Super Bowl was played in Atlanta, Georgia. Kia builds its cars only 81 miles away in the totally obscure town of West Point, Georgia. If there was ever a time to tell this story of contrasting fame and anonymity, it was this year in the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is a parade of big celebrity and broad humor. Kia is no exception. For 9 of the past 10 years we hired a major celebrity and made an ad. This year the tension between The NFL and its players made us rethink that strategy. And commit ourselves to an enduring scholarship program that seeks out worthy but overlooked students struggling with the price of higher education.

The film is shot on location in rural West Georgia where Kias are built. The setting is designed to be an equal character in the film. Apart from the beautiful starlet, none of the people in the film are actors. The director’s thought was to establish a searing humanity as the edit progresses. And to keep the film bluntly simple.