New Iowa City film festival celebrates global and local communities

New Iowa City film festival celebrates global and local communities

May 1, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

This episode features discussions about Iowa's Latino film festivals and a new chapbook of poetry inspired by James Hearst.

On this episode, we talk with the people behind Iowa's two Latino film festivals. The Des Moines Latino Film Festival just held its sixth annual event on April 11. Antonio Romero of the Latino Center of Iowa and Ben Godar of Varsity Cinema, who co-present the festival, share how their partnership has reshaped the festival the last couple years, and their hopes for the future. Then, we get a preview of the inaugural Aqui y Alla Latin American Film Festival happening May 1-3 at Filmscene in Iowa City with programming director Ben Delgado and festival committee member Ariana Martinez. Also, poets JD Schraffenberger and Sean Thomas Dougherty join to discuss their recently published "chapbook" of golden shovel-formatted poems that were inspired by the work of James Hearst.

People in this episode

Guests: Antonio Romero, Ben Godar, Ben Delgado, Ariana Martinez, JD Schraffenberger, Sean Thomas Dougherty

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Latino Center of Iowa, Varsity Cinema

Books & works: chapbook, golden shovel-formatted poems

Places: Iowa City

More episodes of Talk of Iowa

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Talk of Iowa podcast page.