Filmmaker and director Miriam Randolph believes the term Iowa nice is commonly used but not always practiced. Author: Khalil Maycock Updated: 11:44 AM CST February 18, 2021
DES MOINES, Iowa Two filmmakers displaced from California because of wildfires and COVID-19 have created a film titled Nature of the Dream , which explores Black identity in Iowa.
Filmmaker and director Miriam Randolph said the film takes personal experiences from a group of nine Black people, who are from the metro, and turns it into a piece highlighting their dreams and experiences. I wanted to focus on personal dreams that African Americans have, Randolph said.
Honing in on those experiences is used as a way to show others how the American Dream sometimes does and sometimes does not, apply to Blacks in the United States.
By John Busbee
Photo by TheatreMidwest
One truth always seems to emerge from cultural chaos: creativity will find a way to adapt, overcome and continue to engage the public. Central Iowa is showing its mettle during these challenging times, and some wonderful offerings are arising, phoenix-like, from the pandemic fires.
The end of COVID-19 is not known, but the promise of vaccines helps. The economy is fighting back, including the creative economy. Many theatre companies remain publicly dormant, yet behind the scenes, each continues to pencil in plans for their future. When the time is right, they will emerge to again share their special brands of performances. Until then, each encourages their patrons and the public to stay in touch to be updated about progress toward that day when the curtains rise again.
By Jeff Pitts
2/3/2021
You know the drill by now. For nearly three decades, CITYVIEWâs Best Of Des Moines Poll has informed central Iowa about its biggest, best, brightest, tastiest, most fabulous, most effective, most fun, most entertaining, most interesting, its fittest and… You get the idea.
Being the best at something doesnât just happen. Rising to the top of the heap is hard work, but once itâs done, you might as well cash in. Being recognized as the Best Of Des Moines has changed many businesses and propelled them to places they previously wouldnât have thought possible. CITYVIEW expects that trend to continue.
From the archives: No, Cloris Leachman wasn t best friends with Betty White Courtney Crowder, Des Moines Register
Cloris Leachman, known for her role as Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show , has died
Replay Video UP NEXT
Editor s note: This story originally published in 2016. Des Moines native Cloris Leachman died Wednesday at age 94 at her Los Angeles home.
Cloris Leachman is confounded as to why everybody thinks she’s best friends with Betty White.
For years, people have asked her some variation of the question: So,
really, just how close are you to Betty White?
“I hear from people all the time who think we hang out and talk and go places together, I don’t know why,” Leachman said chuckling. “We work together and then we go our own separate ways. My family is who I spend my off-time with.”
Des Moines Register
During a visit to her alma mater, Des Moines Roosevelt High School, in 2016, then 90-year-old Cloris Leachman delivered a TeddyTalk, where she was asked why she became an actress.
“It was just something to do for fun, she replied, according to an account on the Des Moines Public Schools website. It still is.”
The reality, however, is that the Academy Award-winning Leachman spent most of her life on a stage of one sort or another, working to develop the talents that would carry her to fame in movies ranging from the madcap Young Frankenstein to the bleakly tragic The Last Picture Show, for which she won her Oscar.