Creative Community: Des Moines Film
A non-profit organization growing the film culture in Des Moines
When Ben Godar used to teach college-level Intro to Film Studies classes, he’d always begin with students who believed they knew nothing about film.
“Students would come in and say, ‘Oh, I watch movies for fun, but I don’t really know anything about them,’” he told me.
But as he introduced them to concepts and definitions from the study of Film Arts, it would start to click.
“Everyone has tremendous exposure to the art of film. You might not have thought critically about it, but as soon as you introduce these concepts, they immediately come up with three or four films who use them,” he said.
I felt like these students as I began to talk to Ben, who is Executive Director of Des Moines Film. I don’t watch a lot of movies, let alone the art films Ben’s organization often shows. He assured me that that was okay.
In fact, it’s the whole reason Des Moines Film exists.
Des Moines Film is a non-profit arts organization dedicated to growing a vibrant film culture and community in Des Moines. They focus on sharing film art with the community, highlighting diverse voices, and partnering with community groups to produce events focused on specific groups, issues, or ideas.
“Our bread and butter is first run, art house, primarily independent films,” said Ben.
I’ve found myself confronting my biases about what Iowan and Midwestern audiences have a taste for as I continue to produce this newsletter. And, quite honestly, I wonder if these biases are wholly uninteresting to other people, people who are probably saying, “duh, of course there are audiences in Iowa who love independent, art house films. Are you dumb?” (I’m not dumb, just more susceptible to stereotypes than I thought, okay? Sue me.)
I’m confronting these stereotypes every time I meet a new person involved in the Iowa arts scene, humbly learning a history of my state that I had naively misinterpreted.
Des Moines Film is steeped in that art culture, going back much farther than its 2015 founding. In 2018, the organization began the process of purchasing and renovating The Varsity Theater, a small movie theater that has been a staple of the Drake neighborhood since 1934. Bev Mahon and Bob Fridley purchased the theater in 1954, with Mahon taking sole ownership in the 70s. The Varsity became Des Moines’ hub for art house cinema. Des Moines Film wanted to continue that tradition when Mahon’s family decided to sell the theater in 2018.
It made sense for Des Moines Film to take over The Varsity, their programming mirroring what audiences had been experiencing at the theater for decades. The organization began a capital campaign to fund a $5 million renovation process, which included adding a second auditorium.
“We had donations coming from all over the country from people who were Drake grads,” Ben said. “They remembered how much they loved going to the Varsity in the ‘60s.”
The Varsity remains the premier place in Des Moines to see unique films you may not find anywhere else. The curation of these unique films differentiates the theater from its corporate counterparts, whose main focus is to maximize profits. Des Moines Film, instead, focuses on highlighting more independent filmmakers and providing holistic experiences for communities to learn and feel seen on screen.
The variety of programming hosted by the organization provides opportunity for a variety of audiences to connect with film in their own way. For the last two years, a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has funded their “Science on Screen,” a series that hosts talks related to the sciences present in the films they’re screening. They’ll show classic films, like Casablanca, and held a Martin Scorsese series in the leadup to his release of “Killers of the Flower Moon.” In May, they’re showing Miyazaki films to celebrate “Ani-MAY-tion.” They’ve held premiere screenings for locally produced films and frequently host filmmakers in person.
“We’re unique in the arts industry, where the for-profit film industry is always driven by what’s going to make the most money,” Ben said. “For us, if we show something that's incredibly meaningful to a small group of people, that that really serves our mission.”
In efforts to meet that mission, Des Moines Film intentionally partners with community groups to host events tailored to their needs and interests. They partnered last Fall with Al Éxito, a nonprofit supporting the educational and leadership development of Latinx youth in Iowa, to connect with the Latinx community. They showed the Spanish-dubbed version of Blue Beetle, a Marvel movie focused on a Latinx family. One of Al Éxito’s programs has students create their own food business, which they were able to set up and operate in The Varsity’s lobby for the movie.
Des Moines Film is taking further steps to represent the LGBTQ+ programming within their programming. They’re in the process of establishing their “Varsity Pride Advisory Board” to help them establish and produce a year round LGBTQ+ film series called “Varsity Pride.” The organization has previously hosted events with Capital City Pride, OneIowa, Iowa Rainbow Families, and Iowa Safe Schools. They’ll be tapping members of the community to help them form the Varsity Pride series.
“It’s so important to us to work with people who are very authentically engaged in the community,” Ben said. “We just want to host a safe space that allows them to get together to have fun, celebrate, and connect.”
They hope for the advisory board to help them both program the films in the series and plan activities, events, and conversations around those films. They recognize that gathering around a film is a beloved past time for many, and to feel welcomed into the film community is an experience not everyone gets to have.
“We want everyone in Des Moines to feel like they see themselves reflected on a film that’s programmed here at The Varsity,” Ben said.
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