10-18 Films

Kelly Sallaway recently spoke to a group at the Mustang Library about PATRIOT SKIES, sharing the remarkable true story behind the historical documentary currently in development.

It’s 1941. World War II is raging across Europe, and Britain’s Royal Air Force is running desperately short of pilots—and time. In response, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt reach an agreement that brings young British cadets across the Atlantic to train beneath the safer skies of America.

In Mesa, Arizona, two Hollywood pilots convince movie stars and investors to support an ambitious idea: build an airfield that could help prepare those young men for war. That vision became Falcon Field, home to No. 4 British Flying Training School, leaving a legacy that remains part of Mesa’s history today.

During her presentation at the Mustang Library, Kelly discussed how PATRIOT SKIES will explore not only the creation of Falcon Field, but the people whose lives became part of its history—the cadets who traveled thousands of miles from home to learn to fly.

Some never returned to their families, losing their lives in training accidents in Arizona. Others earned their wings and returned to Britain, where they entered a war with no guarantee they would ever come home.

PATRIOT SKIES is a story of courage, sacrifice, friendship, and an extraordinary connection between Britain and Arizona forged during one of the most consequential periods in history.

Thank you to everyone who joined documentary producer Kelly Sallaway at the Mustang Library to hear the story and learn more about PATRIOT SKIES as the documentary continues its journey toward production.

📍 Friday, October 16
- Downtown Mesa
Headlining the Mesa Sessions Main Stage

LOOKING FOR LAURA NELSON is a powerful historical documentary that revisits the 1911 lynching of Laura Nelson and her 12-year-old son in Okemah, Oklahoma—one of the most widely photographed yet deeply overlooked acts of racial terror in American history. Through the personal journey of Laura's descendant, Bruce Nelson, the film uses archival evidence, expert voices, and present-day investigation to reconstruct Laura’s story while uncovering the lasting impact on her family and the silence that followed. More than a historical account, the documentary confronts the erasure of Black women and girls from narratives of racial violence, drawing a direct line between past injustices and ongoing conversations about systemic racism, memory, and whose stories are allowed to endure.

Through the eyes of the SWAT officers who stopped the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, Priority of Life reveals the wounds they still carry, and the bonds forged with the survivors they saved.

Directed by Jon B. Becker