Iowa City woman’s documentary film about American Gothic house April 1, 2008
Posted by John in Art, Films.Tags: American Gothic, Eldon (Iowa), Grant Wood, Sasha Waters Freyer
trackback
From The Capital Times (Wisconsin):
“American Gothic,” stolid, creaky, stuck in a time warp. Pretty near homely. How did it become such a central image in our culture and consciousness?
“No one really knows,” says Sasha Waters Freyer, who has made a documentary film “This American Gothic,” about the painting’s contemporary legacy. …
The film becomes the story of the town’s long, dogged effort to raise money to build a tourist attraction, the American Gothic House Center, a chance to come back from its second Depression. …
Many Iowans had originally felt insulted and mocked by these two faces, as stereotypes of dour Midwestern rubes. “I think there’s a dual meaning that also can be positive,” says Freyer, an Iowa City resident who lives in a farm house with a big front porch like the painting’s. …
Full
I just visited there. The visitor’s center is quite cute and of course all Iowans should go to visit this famous house. The town needs the tourist money too. Quite run down.