The Iowa Prairie Documentary Project is direct by Charlie Morris (of Iowa City), launched in August of 2025. It is an all volunteer project and funded by donations. It’s multi-media, which means you can interact with it in a number of ways.
Video and Podcast Interviews
As a conservation documentary film director, I usually sit down and interview a subject for the movie for a full hour. In reality, only about 2 minutes of that interview will ever be seen in the movie. The remaining 58 minutes hold insights and information that are just as important, but they typically will never be seen or heard. At other times I interview people who have incredible knowledge to share…but they don’t want to be recorded on camera only via audio.
I decided with this project that the stakes for Iowa are too high…and that every bit of each interview should be available for anyone who wants to take the time to watch or listen to the full length Interviews.
Substack
I’ve been a writer for quite a while. Writing is how I process things and make sense of the world. While working on the movie, I post updates and titrations of thought to help me figure out what to do next.
Iowa: And The Broken Circle (feature length documentary)
The movie will premiere in Iowa in September of 2026. It will then show in numerous venues around the state for 2 months. Community discussion after the movie is the heart of these screenings. Run time will be around 90 minutes. I’ll be infusing all the things I have learned from the interviews over the course of an entire year into this movie. The movie will tackle challenging and divisive topics. The goal is to do so in a balanced way.
Topics will include:
- CAFOs and their role in water quality and animal welfare
- Overspray/Drift chemicals exposure to humans and land
- Iowa’s cancer rates
- The loss of rural community life and schools
- Regenerative Farming vs Modern Industrial Agriculture
- Chemical spills and the danger of the “ides” (pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc)
- The impact of Data Centers on Iowa
- Microplastics
- Natural History and geology of Iowa
- Prairie Restoration efforts of all kinds
- The regional beauty of Iowa and why it’s not flyover country
The Book
Yep, I am also turning this project into a book. There are far too many interesting Iowans and too much fascinating Iowa history to pack into one movie. While working on this film I have seen and experienced some very wild things. A book is an ideal format for fuller exploration of these topics. I plan on starting in on the book around January of 2027. Know any publishers?
(Prairie Burn Image Below)
