Welcome to Decorah Stories—Letter from the Editor

Decorah Stories
30°

Forecast for Decorah, IA

38°/28°

Snow (1–2 in.) starting tomorrow morning.

Powered by Dark Sky

Culture

“Jaws” can teach us a lot about our response to COVID-19

by

Across the country, as businesses re-open amid rising coronavirus cases in 22 states, “Jaws” is once again in theaters. But the beloved classic, re-released during a pandemic, looks very different in light of the coronavirus.
In part a story of a shark threatening a beach community, “Jaws” is also the story of a bombastic, anti-science mayor who willfully ignores the threat of an invisible murderous force for the sake of “summer dollars.” (Sound familiar?)

Please stop watching “The Help”: 5 white savior movies to skip–and what to watch instead

by

A white savior movie is a film that portrays white self-sacrifice as necessary to “help” or “fix” a black person’s situation. In a white savior film, black characters are represented as victims who are desperately in need of the help of white people in order to thrive in society. As Chris Rock noted in the movie Top Five: “In any civil rights movie, there’s two heroes. There’s the black hero, and the white person who’s ‘equally’ as important.”

Selected here are five white savior movies you should skip–and what to watch instead.

Black Filmmakers Matter: 15 essential black filmmakers

by

During the past and continuing to the present, major black voices have found artistic expression in filmmaking, creating some of cinema’s most memorable moments. From the liberating catharsis of the blaxploitation genre to the genre-defying films of Spike Lee, black filmmakers have made an indelible imprint on the history of film. And new filmmakers like Jordan Peele, Barry Jenkins, and Ryan Coogler have ushered in new and challenging voices to contemporary cinema. Collected here are 15 of history’s most influential and successful black filmmakers.

Black Filmmakers Matter: 20 great films by black American directors

by

A crucial step in confronting systematic injustice is to learn the stories of the oppressed. Black cinema–both past and present–has a wealth of brilliant and challenging movies. From the blistering and genre-defying films of Spike Lee to the intimate and elegiac films of Barry Jenkins, here are 20 essential films from black filmmakers and where to watch them.

“Like a Complete Unknown”

by

On a rainy afternoon in July 2008, Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in Long Branch, New Jersey when residents called to report an eccentric man wandering around the Latin quarter. What followed, will surprise you.

“BlacKkKlansman” is Spike Lee’s brilliant and subversively funny journey into White America

by

Bottom Line: BlacKkKlansman is an electric, jarring, disturbing, and subversively funny film from one of contemporary cinema’s most vital and necessary filmmakers.
When it premiered in late-summer 2018, filmmaker Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” put Lee back on the map, garnering him some of the best reviews of his career and proving to be his most commercially successful film since the heist thriller “Inside Man” from 2007. Set in the early ‘70s, the film tells the true story of a black detective who successfully infiltrates a Colorado chapter of the KKK.

10 Contemporary British Novelists I Can’t Live Without

by

Contemporary British literature offers readers some of the most vitally original voices working today. From established prose stylists Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan to the evocative historical novels of Hilary Mantel and Pat Barker, each of the ten British authors selected for this list has maintained a consistent output of inventive and emotionally-compelling work.