Iowa City is like an oasis of art amidst the never-ending farmland that controls the state. Even amongst other cities in Iowa, like Ames, Iowa City stands out in its deep passion for art and artists. This is something I knew nothing about when I first came here my freshman year, but I’m so glad that I happened to choose a place that puts such value in art, and as an artist, that makes it really easy to create.

I’m a film student, and while I’ve talked about that before, I haven’t ever explained how filmmaking goes in Iowa City. For my final project in my Film Production: Fiction class, I had to write and direct a 6-minute short film in roughly 6 weeks. The script I wrote includes a lot of location changes, including a gas station and the Iowa River. In a lot of cities, including places like L.A. where filmmaking is THE thing, people really don’t respond well to people filming in public locations. Storeowners will be quick to kick filmmakers out and the general public shows a lot of hostility to them, but Iowa City welcomes it. The city’s appreciation for art, as well as the scarcity of filmmakers in the Midwest, make it exciting for people to see someone shooting film, and they respond very positively. In public, people will be sure to stay out of your way and storeowners are very happy to allow filmmakers to shoot on their grounds.

So, when making this final project, I was very nervous at first to shoot in all of these public locations, but I was pleasantly surprised to not run into any hiccups. Not only does the process of making art go over smoothly here, but the art is celebrated once it’s been created. For example, the downtown theaters in Iowa City always involve local filmmakers in their productions, including a film festival they put on every semester that shows the work of students at the university. There are also a lot of art shows on campus and around town that highlight this passion for art.

I’m not told to come on here and make the University of Iowa or Iowa City sound good – there are a lot of things that I get frustrated with as a film student here (which I’m sure I’ll go into detail about soon), but I genuinely am very thankful for how the community here values and welcomes artists.