49. John Richard

The Iowa Idea: John Richard

In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with filmmaker John Richard. John is a documentary filmmaker and photographer living in Iowa City, Iowa. After receiving a degree in Environmental Science and working at the Daily Iowan newspaper, John worked as the assistant to photographer Danny Wilcox Frazier until taking a full-time position at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. During this time, he began making short films, including Presenting Mister Lincoln, for Slate.com and has had work featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, BBC, Wall Street Journal, among others.

John was the director of photography on the Iowa PBS documentary City of Literature, which served as an inspiration for this podcast.

Many of John’s films explore aspects of Iowa history and culture such as 19th century Danish immigration in, The Simple Gift of Walnut Grove, and the first movies to ever be shown in Iowa in, Saving Brinton. His current film project, a collaboration with Aaron Woolf, is about the Iowa Mountaineers, a mountain climbing club from Iowa that had a tremendous impact on the way that Americans relate to the outdoors.

We discuss John’s journey into filmmaking, as well as his documentary style and process.  I appreciated the opportunity to hear John discuss the collaboration with Andrew Sherburne and Tommy Haines, as well as the details about bringing the film Saving Brinton to life. If you haven’t seen Saving Brinton, please check it out. It’s a moving story about Mike Zahs’ quest to save the Brinton film collection. The Guardian described Saving Brinton as an “absorbing, heartwarming tale.” We dig into John’s current project and talk about the history of The Iowa Mountaineers, as well as John’s research which has includes going through more than 40,000 Kodachrome slides.

It was an honor having John join me on the show. I thank him for sharing his time and insights. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About John

John Richard is a documentary filmmaker and photographer living in Iowa City, Iowa. After receiving a degree in Environmental Science and working at the Daily Iowan newspaper, John worked as the assistant to photographer, Danny Wilcox Frazier until taking a full-time position at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. During this time, he began making short films, including Presenting Mister Lincoln, for Slate.com and has had work featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, BBC, Wall Street Journal, among others.

Many of John’s films explore aspects of Iowa history and culture such as 19th century Danish immigration in, The Simple Gift of Walnut Grove, and the first movies to ever be shown in Iowa in, Saving Brinton. His current film project, a collaboration with Aaron Woolf (director of King Corn) is about the Iowa Mountaineers, a mountain climbing club from Iowa that had a tremendous impact on the way that Americans relate to the outdoors.

Links

John Richard / Bocce Ball Films http://www.bocceballfilms.com/

Aaron Woolf / King Corn – http://www.kingcorn.net/the-filmmakers/aaron-woolf/

The Iowa Mountaineers – https://www.iowamountaineers.com/

The Iowa Mountaineers, Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/iowamountaineersfilm/

Credits

Episode produce by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/)

The Iowa Idea Podcast music written and performed by Paisley Bible (https://paisleybible.bandcamp.com/).