A second chance to catch our Indie Lens Pop-Up feature film, streaming at home.

Storm Lake, Iowa, has seen its fair share of changes in the 40 years since Big Agriculture came to town. Farmers blow their life savings on new equipment they hope will keep their livelihoods intact while migrant workers flock here, welcome and not, to achieve the American Dream. Corporate, political, and environmental forces—and even a global pandemic—threaten to overwhelm the already precarious existence of the people in Storm Lake. Nearly 2,000 local papers have shuttered in the last 20 years, a crisis accelerated by COVID-19. The stakes have been especially high for the Cullen family; they comprise half of The Times’ 10-person team. Against tight deadlines and slimmer margins, the Cullens report on their town, and wonder how the paper will survive as readers cease to support journalism like they used to. 

Storm Lake is co-presented by Steamboat Pilot & Today, the newspaper that has served Steamboat Springs and Routt County since 1885. Run time: 86 min.