IPTV Premiere of THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC

Eldon— Iowa Public Television to show Sasha Waters Freyer’s documentary This American Gothic at 5:40 pm on Sunday, March 29.

THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC is a quirky portrait of Eldon, Iowa, population 998, 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 Visitor Center to attract tourists and save their struggling community.

The ongoing fascination with the painting "American Gothic" suggests hunger for stories from rural America that THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC both taps into and exposes. What do these stories and images from the heartland symbolize? Why are they still so powerful, even in parody or myth? THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC explores the poignant irony of a rural America abandoned to economic hardship trying to rebuild itself through tourism that glorifies a happier, if largely imaginary, country past.

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.

• Who: Iowa Public Television
• What: TV Premiere of THIS AMERICAN GOTHIC Documentary
• When: Sunday, March 29 at 5:40 PM
• Where: Your TV
• Contact: Jessica Strom, 641-652-3352, aghc@iowatelecom.net