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Four years after graduating from Kansas University, a pair of filmmakers finds themselves belatedly following in the footsteps of the 2007 Irish Oscar winner.

Even though Jeremy Osbern and Christopher Blunk started working on their low-low-budget movie musical Air right after graduating from Kansas University’s film program in 2004, it has taken four years and the calling in of every possible favor to get the movie made. After picking up the Best Feature Award at the recent Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee event, Air screened last night - Monday, June 16th - in Lawrence.

“Right now we are distributing it throughout the state of Kansas one city at a time,” Osbern tells the Lawrence Journal World. “This was so much a Kansas-made film. There were so many people in Kansas who helped us in so many ways, whether giving us financial help or loaning us an aquarium to put in the background of a scene.”

Air weaves together the stories of three different couples – a pair of widowed middle-agers, an aspiring rock singer and his gal, a parking lot attendant and his stunning companion – set to music composed by fellow former KU student Steve Unruh. Befitting a low-budget film enterprise, every instrument heard in the film’s 20 songs except for the brass section was also played by Unruh.

Since graduating from KU in 2004, Osbern and Blunk have been making a living in the commercials, industrial and documentary world via their company Through a Glass Productions. The Wichita Eagle dubbed Air as “very enjoyable,” while The Kansan went a step further and wrote that “it is, by far, one of the most well done musicals in a very long time.”