Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Art Cullen and his family fight to unite and inform their rural Iowan farming community through their biweekly newspaper, The Storm Lake Times.
This listing is for the in-person event. To see the streaming options go to peff.eventive.org.
In 2017, Art Cullen unearthed a conspiracy between Big Agriculture and local county officials that won him a Pulitzer. Now, his liberal voice reverberates in this conservative district in a critical swing state. While he has the power to change minds and rally votes, his pugnacious voice makes waves; disgruntled residents don’t always agree with his point of view and have been known to write him and his paper off, completely. As nearly 2000 local papers have shuttered in the last 20 years — a crisis accelerated by COVID-19 — the stakes have been especially high for the Cullens, who comprise half of The Times’ 10-person team. Art’s 27-year-old son Tom is lead reporter, his wife Dolores the photographer and culture reporter, his older brother John the publisher, and John’s wife Mary the food columnist. Against tight deadlines and slimmer margins, the Cullens doggedly report on their town, and wonder how the paper will survive as readers — with a preference for their social media feeds — cease to support journalism like they used to.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion about local journalism moderated by Liz Lempert.
Anne Levin has been a staff writer for Town Topics and Princeton Magazine since 2010. She was a reporter for The Times of Trenton from 1985-2007. Her first job out of college was as an editorial assistant for Cue Magazine in New York, followed by two years as a reporter for The Oak Ridger newspaper in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Richard Rein began his career with the Binghamton, NY, Evening Press, before becoming a correspondent for Time Magazine. As a freelance writer he contributed to People magazine, American Illustrated, and New Jersey Monthly, among many other publications.
Rein (pronounced like Ryan) was the founding editor and publisher of U.S. 1 newspaper, a weekly business and entertainment journal serving the Princeton-Route 1 business corridor in central New Jersey.
Charles Stile has been covering New Jersey politics from the Statehouse in Trenton since 1993, first with The Times of Trenton and with The Record, which he joined in 2000. He served stints as the Record's general assignment reporter and Statehouse bureau chief before becoming its full time columnist in 2007.
This film is part of the Princeton Environmental Film Festival. The festival runs from April 1-10. For information on all screenings, in person and virtual, please visit peff.eventive.org.
This program is presented in partnership with the Pace Center for Civic Engagement at Princeton University and the Paul Robeson House of Princeton and made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
EVENT TYPE: | Documentaries |
TAGS: | Princeton Environmental Film Festival |
