Movies

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  Rushmore (1998) is an film that has achieved cult success among the indie community. In the movie, a precocious fifteen-year old boy named Max Fischer is a leader in many extracurricular activities from the typical high school clubs such as the school newspaper and Model UN to beekeepers club and the kite flying society. In an integral scene, two kids named Max and Dirk fly kites on their own in a parking lot when Max approaches them to apologize for his immature behavior. Alongside them is Margaret Yang flying a radio controlled plane. Max explains that he finds the gentle pressure of the wind against the kite soothing and they all find a gentle peace with each other and themselves, bridged by the activity of kite flying.

Books

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  An integral part of the New York Times bestseller The Kite Runner's (2003) plot focuses on the activity of kite-fighting. Two boys of different social class bond over their mutual love of kite-fighting. One of the boys is an adept kite runner (he is very good at running after kites with cut lines, once you win a kite fighting match you run after the loser's kite). When he reclaims the kite, which is like a trophy to him, he refuses to give it up to the losing boys and tragedy ensues. At the end of the movie, kite-flying helps one of the boys reconnect with his past and accept it. 
• A popular children's book, The Kite Fighters (2000), is about two brothers in medieval Japan who both love kite flying. The younger brother is particularly adept flying the kites while the older brother is good at crafting beautiful kites. A tradition dictates, the firstborn male receives more of the honor, praise and pressure from the family. Through kite-flying, the boys develop a bond to each other and understanding of their own desires and identities outside of tradition.
  

Music

• M83, an electronic band held a contest to see who could make the best music video for their song, We Own the Sky (2009). The winning video, created by the Young Replicant collective, aptly features a group of teenagers frolicking in a grass field and flying kites. M83's Anthony Gonzalez commented on the video saying "It fits perfectly with the music and lyrics and is exactly what I had in mind when I wrote the song", fulfilling the romantic vision set by the lyrics.
  

• M83 - We Own the Sky
  The indie-pop band Kite Flying Society takes its name from the movie Rushmore.
• The U2 song Kite (2000), was inspired by a kite-flying outing Bono (the frontman) attempted with his daughters. The kite didn't stay up in the air for long and his bored daughters wanted to go home to play video games instead. The lyrics involve the speaker worrying about whether or not this kite will survive the harshness of the world. "There's a kite blowing out of control on the breeze / I wonder what's gonna happen to you." The kite is commonly interpreted as a metaphor for something that the speaker wants to hold on to, but is ultimately out of his control. Bono later dedicated the song to his late father, who was battling cancer.

• Was Benjamin Franklin's famed kite experiment true? According to most sources, yes. Franklin performed the kite experiment in order to show that lightning was electricity. He flew a kite into a stormy sky, one he believed had potential to be a lighting storm. The end of the kite line was attached to a key. Franklin hung onto a silk ribbon that was also attached to the key, but not linked to the kite line. On the other end of the key (where the teeth were) a strip of metal wire was attached to it and led down to a Leyden Jar, a device that "stores" electricity. When he held onto the ribbon that wasn't touching the kite line but attached to the key, he felt nothing. However, when his hand got close to the key, he felt a shock of static electricity, which supports the fact that lightning is electricity. Franklin was lucky to not have been electrocuted!