Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern (Directed by Jeanne Jordan and Steve Ascher, 1995) This is the story Russel and Mary Jane Jordan of Wiota, Iowa, and their farm family, present and past. It focuses on a 1990s family economic crisis that results when bankers become aggressive about forcing the payback of delinquent loans. In creating a "Midwestern" (contrasted with the adventure-filled Western movies the Jordans watch on TV), daughter Jeanne Jordan and her husband have scripted and shot a film with the eyes of loving insiders. The story presents with poignancy and humor the familiar pastoral images of Iowa landscape as well as interiorscapes of working farmplaces and the gritty realities of a farm liquidation sale. These physical images all acquire symbolic depth and complexity as the family is shown teetering on the brink of disaster, but pulling through (temporarily) with luck and timing, aided by sensible risk‑taking and cooperation.
Marty Knepper Morningside College knepper@morningside.edu & John Shelton Lawrence Morningside College j.shelton.1@gmail.com
