The day John Waters calls me, he has just finished writing the first draft of his next show, Let’s Take Over the World, which he will present at the Englert Theatre on Oct. 9. The writer and director of films including Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and Cry-Baby and books such as Shock Value and Role Models […]
Ariana Martinez
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John Cameron Mitchell reflects on 25 years of ‘Hedwig’ — ‘a story of trauma, abuse and the government deciding what you are’
For John Cameron Mitchell, the writer, director and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, punk rock has to be in the moment. Currently on tour for the film’s 25th anniversary, Mitchell will stop in Iowa City on Sept. 23 and 24 for a musical performance as part of Hancher’s Infinite Dream Festival, as well […]
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Worth a Rewatch: Soderbergh debut ‘Sex, Lies, and Videotape’ is the kind of slow-burn indie film that’s getting harder to make
Nearly 40 years after its release, Sex, Lies, and Videotape will play at Varsity Cinema in Des Moines as part of the theater’s “Declarations of Independence series: Celebrating America’s 250th Anniversary with early films from independent filmmakers.” The film follows a sexless married couple, Ann (Andie MacDowell) and John (Peter Gallagher) — or at least, […]
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Keep an eye out for ‘Selena’ and other acclaimed films in the Quad Cities Latino Cinema Series
For many, Selena, released in 1997, was one of the first films about Latino culture they watched. It was for me. While Mexican television shows such as El Chavo del Ocho and telenovelas like Rubí were frequently playing in the living room, Selena, a biopic about Tejano musical artist Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, is one of the earliest movies about Latinidad I can recall being shown.
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‘Kamal’s,’ a new documentary about a Muslim chef and mayoral candidate in Grinnell, shows at Des Moines Art Fest
The Des Moines Art Festival returns this weekend, and with it the Interrobang Film Festival, a free-to-attend, juried show featuring 36 films. One of those films is a new documentary about Muslim chef Kamal Hammouda, based in Grinnell, and his life in food, family and politics. Directed by Nich Perez, Kamal’s blends interviews with Hammouda, […]
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Review: ‘Natchez’ shows romanticized history, while sometimes comforting, is far creepier than the truth
When the trailer for the Best Documentary Feature winner at the Tribeca Film Festival, Natchez, first played at FilmScene, my initial, curious response was eclipsed by my partners’ who said, “I’ve been there. We had a family reunion there.” Even before watching the film, its themes of history and tourism were placed firmly on our lap, already haunting the theater. How far away was the past, really?
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Utilizing the Source’s basement of VHS tapes, Quad Cities creatives put a local spin on ‘Criterion Closet Picks’
The Video Home System, or VHS, format was introduced in the late ’70s, revolutionizing the way people consumed movies. DVD would usurp it at the turn of the century, of course, but you’re hard-pressed to find a Gen Xer or millenial without at least a little video cassette nostalgia. Gen Z has shown an appetite […]
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Sundance 2026 features documentaries on Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, the Chicano Movement and public access TV
The last Sundance Film Festival based in Park City, Utah, has drawn to a close. The future sees the fest relocating to Boulder, Colorado, but for now, Little Village brings dispatches from Sundance to you in Iowa — starting with three documentaries that premiered at the fest. Representing three U.S. regions, these films critique the […]
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Worth a Rewatch: ‘The Thing’ finds normal people resisting a violent invasion of their snowy home
There’s nothing like beginning the year at the end of the world. As Iowa City’s FilmScene prepares for its yearly showing with two screenings, how does John Carpenter’s cult classic, a film infamously received as off-putting during the Reagan era, land on our laps as we face our own rising tide of conservatism and real-world violence? […]
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Film critic and UI grad Jason England explains why he found this Oscar frontrunner ‘extremely goofy’
In his discerning review for Defector, England argues that One Battle After Another lacks the heart and soul required of texts seemingly devoted to political revolt, a spectacle synonymous with many left-leaning signposts that rely on performances of politics, rather than action. His piece received substantial attention, most disputing England’s argument, but it was not the discourse that spurred my conversation with England. At the tail end of his review, England surprisingly mentions Iowa City…
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‘You’re My Waterloo’: How a very 1982 tourism song became a Cedar Valley sensation
In 1982, the inaugural My Waterloo Days Festival was held as a celebration of the beginning of the summer. Replete with a parade, laser light shows and hot air balloons, it was a special event seeking to foster community bonding amid economic strife. John Deere was seeing mass layoffs, the Rath Packing Company was on […]
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Review: ‘Videoheaven,’ a genre-defying film essay at Refocus, stirred and challenged Iowans’ rental store nostalgia
Do you remember your favorite video store growing up? Director Alex Ross Perry, who recently released his experimental documentary film Pavements, chronicles the now virtually extinct rental shop industry in Videoheaven, a three-hour film that screened at the Refocus Film Festival earlier this month. Fascinatingly, it’s not really a documentary. Videoheaven is uniquely devoted to studying […]
