This American Gothic
Doc • 63 minutes • 2008
DVCam | 16mm • Stereo


Official Selection
DETROIT DOCS
FILM FESTIVAL
2008

"In the spirit of documentary filmmaker Errol Morris who gave us Gates of Heaven in 1978 comes This American Gothic. Like Morris, Waters Freyer has captured with humor, local dialogue, and credible references, the persona of small-town America."

                                                            – Santa Fe New Mexican

Official Selection
SIDEWALK MOVING 
PICTURE FESTIVAL
2008http://almovingimage.org/sidewalk-fest.html
Special Screening
GENE SISKELL
FILM CENTER
2008http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/
Official Selection
WISCONSIN 
FILM FESTIVAL
2008http://www.wifilmfest.org/



SYNOPSIS

This American Gothic is a history of one of the most famous paintings in the world and a quirky portrait of Eldon, Iowa, population 998, site of the house that inspired it.  The film follows four local women over two years as they work towards their dream of a Gothic House Visitor Center to attract tourists and save their fading rural community.  On the single main street through town, yellow banners commemorating the Gothic House flap proudly in the wind, but the one restaurant in Eldon, called Jones' Gothic Room, stands shuttered and closed. 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.


TRAILER & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD available on Fandor

Need a DVD? Email sasha-waters@uiowa.edu or visit the Gothic House Center Gift Store in Eldon, IA.


LINKS

American Gothic House Center

Grant Wood

Des Moines Art Center