Documentary 'Storm Lake' chronicles Cullen family's commitment to community journalism
Julie Gammack
Jerry Risius was walking backward on streets unknown in Monrovia, Liberia, pointing a camera aimed at globe-trotting chef Anthony Bourdain. The cinematographer from Buffalo Center, Iowa, heard a voice call out, "Hey, Jerry!"
Surprised by hearing the sound of an old pal, it was one of those moments when the field director for Bourdain understood the small world we inhabit.
As a freelance director of photography, Risius' work primarily records stories about other people’s lives. The documentary "Storm Lake" is what he calls his first farm-to-table production. The germ of the idea came to him in 2017 when he read in the New York Times that the Storm Lake Times, a newspaper in northwest Iowa, won a Pulitzer Prize.