“Storm Lake” Screening to Benefit COLab & Local Media

▪︎ MONDAY, OCTOBER 18 ▪︎ 6 P.M. DOORS OPEN ▪︎ 7 P.M. SCREENING BEGINS ▪︎

You’re invited to join us in person on the evening of Oct. 18 at The Historic Sheridan Opera House in Telluride for a special preview screening of “Storm Lake: A newspaper. A family. A community.” an upcoming documentary that focuses on a small-town newspaper’s fight to serve its community.

The film, to be aired on PBS later this year, directed by Jerry Risius and Beth Levison, is the moving story of a courageous small-town editor determined to keep his local newspaper alive at a time when hundreds of small newspapers are perishing. Some 1800 local papers have gone out of business in the U.S. since 2004.

In the words of Storm Lake Times Editor Art Cullen, “The best journalism is that which builds communities. You build your community by publicizing good deeds done by citizens, as well as reporting on the cheats and scoundrels … by urging yourself and those around you to do better by allowing dissenting voices to be heard.”

Tickets are $25 – cash or check – available at the door. All proceeds of the $25 admission will support COLab and its work with local news media in Colorado. Please note that there will be no admittance without proof of covid vaccination or a negative covid test.

This screening is hosted by Judy Muller, a member of COLab’s community-based board of directors. Judy also is professor emerita at USC Annenberg School of Journalism and a resident of Norwood who cares passionately about quality local journalism.

“A lot of people may be familiar with the motto of the Washington Post, ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’” Judy said, “and I would argue that the local version of that is ‘Democracy Dies in News Deserts,’ those rural communities where small papers have gone out of business. Without a local journalist to hold the powerful accountable, to cover all those town council and school board meetings so citizens know how their tax dollars are spent, to provide a place for a little home-town bragging about local achievements, then the community has lost its voice and its soul.”

“This film,” she added, “gave me hope for the future of a vibrant free press at the local level. And hope is a rare commodity these days.”

When:
Monday, Oct. 18
6 p.m. doors open and bar area available for socializing
7 p.m. screening begins

Where:
The Historic Sheridan Opera House
110 N Oak St
Telluride, CO 81435