Film Review: Storm Lake

 

In the tiny Iowa farming town of Storm Lake, Art Cullen has put out the biweekly “Storm Lake Times” for the past 40 years. He and his family – wife Mary, son Tom and sister-in-law Dolores – make up 50% of the paper’s staff. They’ve never really made any money. As Cullen puts it, “We’ve always operated on the break-even point.” 

But farming has changed over the decades, and so has communication. The pandemic didn’t help, either. Even in 2019 – the one year they did make a $2900 profit – it was canceled out by increased health insurance costs.

In “Storm Lake,” directors Beth Levison and Jerry Risius give us a riveting profile  of the life of this small-town newspaper, threatened not only by the usual problem of not enough advertisers but by the incursion of agribusiness. Here, it’s Tyson’s pig and turkey packing plant that supplanted many smaller farms.

Tyson sends the Iowa Pork Producers’ “Pork Queen,” an elementary-level student, who brings a baby pig to a second-grade class to tell the students, “Pigs eat all day so they grow fast. It’s really important for us to make sure the pigs have everything they need so they can grow fast and efficiently – that’s what the pork industry is all about.” Ah, BigAg, ain’t it great?

Early in 2019, Art and his staff cover the Democratic election hopefuls who show up. We see several, including Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang. But as Art notes, “People care more about whether the trash gets picked up than that Elizabeth Warren is in town.”

Art is approached by a fellow editor Lorena Lopez of the Spanish-language “La Prensa,” who suggests they might both benefit by sharing stories. At that point Art is busily trying to figure out whether to close the paper for good. But after 40 years in the business, he doesn’t want to do that, so he succumbs to the electronic age and sets up a GoFundMe page.

“Storm Lake” is a beautifully shot and fascinating profile of a profession I hope we never lose. Kudos to all involved.

“Storm Lake” will be released on tour Sept 17. The national TV & streaming debut will be on PBS Independent Lens on Nov. 15.