July 26 in Quiltropolis . . . er, Winterset

Dear (Paid) Quiltropolis Subscribers,

You are in for a treat!

Saturday July 26, at 3 p.m., the Iowa Theater will screen “Storm Lake,” a 2021 documentary film that won the Audience Award for best feature at the American Film Institute’s DOCS film festival that year and was nominated for a Peabody Award.

Art Cullen, whose family-run newspaper, The Storm Lake Times, is the subject of the film, will take the stage at the Iowa Theater after the screening for an interview conducted by Julie Gammack.

For paid subscribers to this column or to the columns of Deb Engle, Vicki Minor, or Jason Walsmith, the three other Madison County Iowans besides myself who are members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, the screening is free.

The Iowa’s marquee lighting was recently refurbished. The theater’s concession stand offers beer, wine, hard cider, Coke products, and Iowa-grown popcorn served with real butter.

Also free is the afterparty two blocks from the theater at The Winterset Livery, a unique event space that was once an actual horse livery. Delicious, robust appetizers will be catered by Petite Cafe. A cash bar will be available.

The Winterset Livery is a event space inside a restored circa 1907 brick building that housed horses and buggies in the days before the horseless carriage.

If you are not a paid subscriber and want to attend, now’s the perfect time to upgrade, but you should act fast. The Iowa Theater has 80 seats on the ground floor, 72 in the balcony, and the back part of the balcony is better for snuggling than watching a movie.

Here’s what the producers of “Storm Lake” say about the film:

Dark clouds hang over the cornfields of Storm Lake, Iowa, which has seen its fair share of change in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to town. Farmers blow their life savings on new equipment they hope will keep their livelihoods intact. Migrant workers flock here—welcome and not—for their slice of the American Dream. The people of Storm Lake confront a changing and precarious existence. Enter: Art Cullen and his family members who deliver local news and editorials on a shoestring budget for their 3,000 readers. This paper means a fighting chance for their beloved hometown, and by hook or by crook, they’ll make the most of it. There’s simply too much at stake.

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "A vital celebration of the role of community-based news gathering at a time when media revenues are way down and the credibility of the press has taken a hammering across much of the country.”

Click on the links to these Madison County Collaborative writers to upgrade to paid: Deb Engle, Vicki Minor, or Jason Walsmith. Paid subscribers to any IWC columnists may attend free. Click on the button below to RSVP. The form allows you to include and pay for guests.