Ottumwa Premiere of THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC

Ottumwa— The Ottumwa Area Arts Council received funding from Humanities Iowa, a private, non-profit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, to host a free documentary called This American Gothic by Sasha Waters Freyer at 2:00 pm on Sunday, September 7 at Bridge View Center in Ottumwa. The event will be followed by a reception with an opportunity to ask questions and visit with the director as well as a chance to produce your own photo of “American Gothic.”

THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC is a quirky portrait of Eldon, Iowa, population 998, and site of the house that inspired one of the most famous paintings in the world. The film follows a group of local women as they work towards their dream of a Gothic House Visitors Center to attract tourists.

THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC uses interviews, direct cinema, animation, parodies and moving image portraiture to explore the complex, ambivalent nature of Grant Wood's famous painting, and to meditate upon observation, self-presentation and representation in painting, photography, history, and the documentary impulse itself.

Produced, directed & edited by Sasha Waters Freyer, Director of Photography by Meghan Sims and featuring Priscilla Coffman, Linda Durflinger, Donna Jeffrey, Brenda Kremer and Steve Siegel.

A cultural resource for Iowans since 1971, Humanities Iowa offers many cultural and historical programs and grants to Iowa’s communities.