Utica Native Tells Personal Story Via Film

By EMILY HILBERT
UTICA

Utica native and longtime Upstate New York resident Kim Bass released his second film to theaters nationwide recently. The new movie, “A Snowy Day in Oakland,” is described in a press release as centering “around a beautiful psychologist from San Francisco who ends a stalled romance with her high-profile psychiatrist boyfriend and business partner and opens her own practice in a vacant storefront space on a small commercial block across the bay in Oakland. Her presence turns this predominately African American and psychologically ignored neighborhood on its emotional ear.”

Bass commented on the film, describing how the story “is very personal, as it is based on real people and elements of my early childhood growing up within the Black community in Utica.”

“A Snowy Day in Oakland” is rated PG-13.

Bass grew up in Utica during the 1960s, where he believed his dream to become a filmmaker was only that, a dream. However, his mother, Juanita (Holmes) Bass, helped make that dream a reality by encouraging her son and fueling his drive, telling him, “Not only do you want to do it, you’re going to do it!”

Movies and media have always been something deeply personal to Bass, and he tries to incorporate those feelings into his own creations. “Tyson’s Run,” his first nationwide film, was released in March 2022. It is described as “the inspiring story of a 15-year-old home-schooled boy who doesn’t let autism hold him back. He attends public school for the first time and, to mend a rift between his parents and make his family whole again, aspires to become a marathon champion. Through the process, he learns that with faith, belief in himself, perseverance, and the support of those who understand him, anything is possible.”

Bass—who himself is on the autism spectrum, previously home-schooled, and one of six children—likened his personal journey in life to the transitional arc Tyson goes through in the film. “Tyson’s Run” is rated PG and is available to stream on Netflix.

“Sometimes winning a race is about more than speed,” said Bass. “It’s about heart and determination, and belief in yourself.”

This rings true, given the successful career Bass has enjoyed thus far in film, selling more than two dozen screenplays and writing for major companies including, but not limited, to Warner Brothers Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Studios, Disney Studios, Sony Pictures Studios, Paramount Studios and Dream Works Studios. Bass has also been nominated for an Emmy Award for “Best Writing” and was the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for “Best Comedy Series” for his work as a writer on the FOX network series, “In Living Color.”

Bass understands that nobody succeeds alone.

“I’ve always believed that with enough effort and faith in yourself, and with support from those who care about you, you can achieve anything. With love and support from my family and friends, and with faith in myself, I have a career in a field I love,” he said.