There’s one scene in writer-director Sea Fahey’s film For Kicks that I can’t stop thinking about. The documentary by the Iowa City transplant covers a pair of Black martial artists who broke into the overseas kung fu movie market in its hey-day: Eugene Thomas, a native Chicagoan, and Ron van Clief out of Brooklyn, New […]
Documentary
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Filmmaker Drew Johnson on why his team chose to zoom in on East Palestine, Ohio — and how it reminds him of Cedar Rapids
Drew Johnson grew up in Cedar Rapids making movies with his friends in his backyard. Now an adult, his filmmaking career has flourished without Johnson needing to leave the Midwest. He’s was one of the founding members of Loose Films, an award-winning production house based in Columbus, Ohio. Johnson founded the company with Noah Dixon […]
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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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Beth M. Howard’s ‘Pieowa’ is the taste-good, feel-good film of the year
It is the first weekend of the Iowa State Fair, and Beth M. Howard is still thinking about pie. “I’ve tried to get away from pie a couple of times,” she said, “and I just keep getting pulled back. I’ve surrendered.” Howard has made a career off the pastry, first by writing a memoir about […]
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Review: Ever dreamed of hiding in a store overnight? Documentary ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ makes space for the anarchist in all of us
I can’t speak for everyone, but if teenage me found out that there was a secret Playstation clubhouse in my local mall, with an access panel hidden over a toilet, I would have gone through the looking glass in a heartbeat. This is a proposition that 2024 documentary Secret Mall Apartment presents, with Providence, Rhode […]
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Behind the ultimate rock-umentary — and its 20th anniversary re-release, ‘Dig! XX’ — is a sister-brother duo with an eye for mad genius
Multi-award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner has amassed a wide-ranging body of work about people she calls “impossible visionaries.” Her documentary subjects tend to stray from social convention and take the path less traveled, which can sometimes put hers in impossible situations. I imagine that nothing was more difficult than making Last Flight Home, a 2022 film […]
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There are 52 quintillion versions of the ‘Eno’ documentary. Iowans will see two of them this week.
The new documentary about glam rocker, pop producer and non-musician Brian Eno has been dubbed the “first generative feature film.” No two viewings are ever one and the same.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Harper Steele shares thoughts on camping chairs, clothes shopping, growing up in Iowa City and having a love-hate relationship with home as ‘Will & Harper’ hits FilmScene
Joy can often be found in the most unassuming places. In roadside diners, biker bars, even parking lots. It’s nestled between our relationships with friends, family and even the strangers one tries to make laugh.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Hockeyland’, a new documentary from the makers of ‘Saving Brinton’, hits theaters this month
It’s been 17 years since Minnesota-born filmmakers Tommy Haines, JT Haines and Andrew Sherburne founded their independent production company, Northland Films, with a focus on nonfiction storytelling. In that time, they’ve produced, directed and released six film projects — all while Sherburne was busy founding and expanding Iowa City’s nonprofit cinema FilmScene. Their best-known documentary […]
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Watch: Interview with Sara Terry, director of ‘A Decent Home’
The new documentary A Decent Home tells the story of mobile home park residents, including those in North Liberty’s Golfview, as they try to preserve their communities and their homes after the parks are bought by private equity funds and other investors determined to maximize profits at their expense. Ahead of its sold-out screening at […]
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Andre’ Wright creates space in downtown Iowa City for BIPOC people to heal, create and protest
It was the kids who came up with the name. When designer and Humanize My Hoodie co-founder Andre’ Wright accepted an offer from Revival owner Sheila Davisson to make use of her then-vacant Ped Mall space, he didn’t have a name in mind. All he had was a vision, to “really show this community what […]
Posted inCommunity/News
New documentary explores Storm Lake, Iowa and its intrepid family of journalists
Art Cullen’s storied career in journalism began when he was a young man stumbling his way through school. “I flunked accounting,” he said, “and realized the only requirement to get into the journalism program at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul was the ability to type 25 words per minute. It was 1975, […]
