Documentary on Southeast Iowa City Residents One of Many Films at this Week's Landlocked Film Festival
The local film festival runs from tonight until Sunday. The documentary on Southeast Iowa City, titled "Black American Gothic," will screen on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Englert Theatre, and will be followed by a moderated discussion.
University of Iowa doctoral candidate Robert Gutsche is hoping that a documentary being shown at the Landlocked Film Festival this weekend will serve as a catalyst for a larger community conversation.
Gutsche, a founding member of Crossingborders.us, a website intended to provide a voice for the life and culture of those who live in Iowa City's Southeast Side, is helping to organize a discussion following the showing of "Black American Gothic," a documentary on Iowa City and its handling of race.
The film will be shown at 4 p.m. at the Englert Theatre, and will be followed by small group discussions. Gutsche said the hope is to cut through theory and to express views from people all over the community.
"Our community has been changing for such a long time and in such great ways, but we haven't found a way to really talk about it," Gutsche said. "We're hoping that these small groups, with the help of this film, will give us some practice for how to talk about these issues."
Gutsche said these discussions are especially important in light of such racially charged incidencts as the murder of a local landlord and the upcoming trial of some of the people who allegedly were involved.
For those who can't make the discussion, Crossborders.us will be hosting a lightly moderated online discussion via a blog where people can submit their opinions.
Gutsche said in two years of studying the media narratives surrounding racial tension in Iowa City he has learned how complex a situation it is. He said the views express in Black American Gothic and on the Crossingborders website are only the beginning of a much larger picture, which goes beyond the common assumptions of why new people with different backgrounds are coming to Iowa City, and where they are coming from.
In other words, these people are not just poor criminals fleeing big cities for government handouts.
"There isn't a right or a wrong or a truth or an untruth, it's just a lot more complicated than we think it is. It's certainly more complicated than what I thought it was," Gutsche said.
You can watch a trailer of Black American Gothic here.
Here is the full schedule for the Landlocked Film Festival.
Some Other Landlocked Highlights from the event's website:
New feature film White Knight
Meet writer-director Jesse Baget at the movie on Saturday night at Landlocked. And don't miss his panel earlier in the day, Adventures in Indie Filmmaking.
Saturday at 7:00 pmAugust 27, 2011 Englert Theatre
Dan Gable at LandlockedFreestyle: The Victories of Dan Gable is a documentary about the life and career of Dan Gable, with a personal appearance by the man himself, along with director Kevin Kelly and producer David Gould.
Sunday at 6:00 pm
August 28, 2011 Englert Theatre
The Mole Man of Belmont AvenueThe landlords are morons, the tenants are moving out, and there's a monster in the basement. Wiseacre directors and stars John LaFlamboy and Mike Bradecich are scheduled to appear. Plus they're going to drive the Zombie Army bus from Chicago to Landlocked.
Friday at 9:15 pm
August 26, 2011 Englert Theatre
Avril F
11:35 am on Friday, August 26, 2011
Neither Gutsche or Wilson are truly trying to provide a voice for those on the southeast side. Instead they are trying to frame the issues in a certain way by only talking to a small microcosm of the southeast side.
If one looks at Gutsche's website, you can see he hasn't done much work getting to know the people who live on the southeast side.
Stephen Schmidt
4:19 pm on Friday, August 26, 2011
@Avril: I don't want to speak for him, but from my interview with Mr. Gutsche I think in a sense he would agree that they haven't covered the whole picture-- yet. In speaking with him that's a part of why they are interested in hosting this discussion, because they want multiple perspectives reflected in a community dialogue.
One thing that Gutsche said Crossingborders does do is include *some* of the perspectives from people who haven't been heard from enough from these neighborhoods, which is why I wrote "are only the beginning of a much larger picture."
Thanks for the comment.
Avril F
11:22 am on Saturday, August 27, 2011
I think if Gutsche's(or anyone else's) project are focusing more about smaller groups, then he should find a different way to describe them, rather than misleading people who might not know much about the area to think what he is writing about is representative of an entire area.