- Welcome toIndependent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin'sDirector's Cut.
Protecting one's hometown is a big task.
Doing it while trying to preserve
the integrity of your family-owned newspaper
is even more of a challenge.
This is the story of tonight's film,Storm Lake.
Right smack dab in the middle of America's heartland
is the town of Storm Lake, Iowa.
Like many small towns that depend on farming,
Storm Lake has seen its share of changes
over the last few decades,
specifically the arrival of big agriculture.
One Storm Lakeresident,
63-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning local journalist
Art Cullen,
is the owner of the local newspaperStorm LakeTimes.
Cullen does everything in his power,
along with the help of his family,
to bring his 3,000 readers the news.
Besides reporting on stories crucial to the community,
he writes editorials where he does not pull any punches.
The Cullen family manages to do all this
on a shoestring budget
as they try to keep their paper up and running.
Storm Lakeis directed by Jerry Risius and Beth Levison.
The Award-winning Brooklyn-based Risius
grew up on a pig farm
just an hour north ofStorm Lake,
allowing him to bring a local perspective to his story.
He also has over twenty years of documentary filmmaking
and cinematography experience.
Beth Levison is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director.
Her filmWomen in Blueexplored gender issues and corruption
in the Minneapolis Police Department
and premiered onIndependent Lensearlier this year.
Now sit back and join me
on a small screen road trip to Iowa.
Storm Lakestarts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.