Great stories come from the air.
Aviation is about so much more than planes.
It's about struggle and triumph.
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It's about oil and tears.
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Great aviation stories are about people.
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Our first project: American Impression
It's an American success story built on the shoulders of a French-Canadian, another guy from the bland suburbs of Phoenix and a 37-year old obsession.
American Impression takes the audience on the road to Dalhart, Texas to see how a Maverick and Iceman impersonator touch lives -- and keep the Top Gun myth going.
About the flying circus
Flying Circus Media is owned by Judd Slivka, a long-time journalist and aviation nerd.
His written work has appeared in ESPN: The Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and Slate. He has worked for newspapers in Little Rock, Seattle and Phoenix and in TV in Phoenix. A former journalism professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Slivka has taught or practiced journalism in 36 states and five contintents.
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His first documentary, The Work is Hard and Not Done: Being Black in the Valley, won a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism for 12News/KPNX, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix. You can see his personal website, examples of his prose and photography here.
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Why the flying circus?
"Flying circus" is derived from the barnstormers of the early days of 20th Century aviation, pilots who would go from town to town flying stunts to impress the crowd. Searching for a phrase people unfamiliar with planes would understand, local journalists came up with the term "flying circus."
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A flying circus wasn't just about the pilots. There were wing-walkers, parachutists, balloon rides, women who wore their pantaloons above the ankle -- the whole bit. Flying circuses were vaudeville shows with engines. They introduced whole swaths of post-World War I American to the technology that would ultimately make the world smaller.
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So why not call a company that makes films a flying circus? It's about people and their stories. And stories, of course, are what make the world smaller.
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