Mums are in season in Clear Lake Iowa. I stood in front of a flower shot tha t had so many mums on sale that they wrapped around the block. I had. Arrived at the Lake Theater in Clear Lake Iowa early to sketch.
People I’m Iowa are so nice. I dropped a few of the movie marketing cards while I was setting up to sketch. A woman’s driving by stopped to shout out her window to let me know I had dropped the cards. While I was sketching the film festival organizers showed up with a card table, and some banners. One of the. Stopped in the middle of the street to shoot a cell phone photo of then marquee.
i picked up my filmmaker lanyard and spent the day watching films. There were some stinkers and some real gems.
Ben Riggin, one of the festival organizers told me a bit about the history of the theater. It used to be an opera house. Opera singers used to travel from city to city to, perform opera. It was like vaudeville bit with a touch more class. This traveling opera tradition ended around the 1920s. The the building res converted into a movie house which is still is today.
COVID Dystopia was shown in the third block of films. There was applause after the credits rolled which is rewarding. I never know how an audience will react. After the screening a group of young filmmakers asked me more questions outside. They wanted to know about the music by Any Matchett and I got to tell them about Key of E the post apocalyptic rock musical.
I am really amazed COVID Dystopia screened in Iowa. Iowa is a very deep red state that embraced Trump. This short has many scenes denigrating Trumps failed COVID policies. Granted I am the only one masked at all the film festival screenings and after parties but no one has given me a hard time about it.