'Storm Lake' Pays Tribute To Local News

CHICAGO (Sept. 22, 2021) — “Storm Lake” opens Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center, telling the story of a locally-owned and operated newspaper in Iowa. Art Cullen and his family are reporters, graphic designers and managers of the Storm Lake Times, and they represent the absolute necessity of a fading public service: local journalism.

The documentary from directors Beth Levison and Jerry Risius is necessary viewing, presenting a straightforward account of a family fighting to keep a newspaper afloat. Brothers Art and John don’t even take a salary, but pay their employees and “keep the lights on” through advertising and circulation.

“Storm Lake” shows a wide range of journalistic integrity on display: from the nitty-gritty of covering politics to what Art’s wife Dolores calls “the happy beat,” featuring talent shows and local schools. One thing is clear: the hyper-local nature of the Times is never compromised, and these reporters do what so many local news organizations fail to achieve by sticking solely to what happens in Buena Vista County.

As local papers fade away across the country, the Cullens and company are committed to doing a public service for Storm Lake. But with this film, they are doing an even larger service to small communities across the country that miss reading about the school board, the park district, the trivia night at the bar down the street. Who miss knowing "who's getting married and buried," as Art put it. The Times puts national issues into a local context, and they do it without frills or fanfare — or asking for credit, despite being a Pulitzer Prize-winning publication.

Maybe “Storm Lake” can do for 2021 what “Spotlight” did six years ago when it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. By putting a cinematic lens over this important issue, audiences might finally take notice: that having a quality local paper is not a luxury, but a necessity. Levison and Risius lay it all out with the same straightforward nature as the reporters they're featuring.

The film is heartbreaking and frustrating, but hopeful, too. This team is doing it the right way, and other towns can learn from their example.

I’ll break a basic reporter’s rule by sharing a personal note here: my dad was a newspaperman in Chicago for close to 40 years. He doesn’t like the title “journalist,” or even really “reporter.” He’s been talking for years about the downfall of independently-owned newspapers, and has seen firsthand the detriment it can cause a community, and in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, a country.

This film gave him hope, most of all. That the work he committed his life to is still going strong in some places, and that there are filmmakers who care enough to bring attention to it, and help it get stronger. I hope the Cullens know they’re doing more than one reporter proud.

Dad said “Storm Lake” should be required viewing for journalism students in schools across the country, so they can see what real reporting looks like. But for now, the film will screen at the Siskel Center through Sept. 30, featuring Art Cullen in conversation on Sept. 24.