Vino Vérité: THE DELLS
Schedule
Sun, 24 Aug, 2025 at 07:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
FilmScene (at The Chauncey) | Iowa City, IA
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Presented by
Bread Garden Market and Little Village Magazine
Sunday, August 24th, 7pm
DIALOGUE: Filmmaker Nellie Kluz in person
The Vino Vérité series features talented new voices and established filmmakers influenced by the vérité tradition in person to present their thought-provoking, chance-taking, and visually-arresting films. Each selection is paired with hand-selected wines from Bread Garden Market.
Tickets: $25 public / $20 members / $12 students. Includes wine tasting, film, hors d'oeuvres and filmmaker reception.
6:30pm: Hors d'oeuvres & wine tasting
7:00pm: Screening
8:30pm: Q&A + Wine & Dessert Reception with filmmaker
"A counter-intuitively funny ensemble of people (not least the filmmaker) finding humor in a default hopeless place."—Filmmaker Magazine
"Kluz studiously ducks the hype of the tourist city, seeing instead the sterile weirdness behind the billboards and saying more about American capitalism than paradise lagoons."—CriticSpeaks
"A front-row seat to a low-stakes summer of hustles, hangouts, and humble dreams."—FilmThreat
"One of my favorite docs this year, The Dells is beautifully shot, hilarious, and prescient. Nellie's Knack for finding tenderness amongst the cacophony of the theme park economy is as exceptional as it is unexpected"—Photographer
ABOUT THE DELLS
Working in a patient purely vérité style, Nellie Kluz's The Dells embraces the summer vibes of a group of International students newly arrived in Wisconsin Dells, the “Waterpark Capital of the World.” As fantasy clashes with reality, the experiences of these students mirror the highs and lows of the water park rides that draw millions of visitors to this iconic vacationland. Landing in the Midwest from countries like Turkey, Romania, Jamaica, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic, these students arrive on temporary J-1 visas to work low-paying jobs as lifeguards, housekeepers, and servers, living in dormitories tucked behind a glut of tourist attractions. Mixing sun, surf, and optimism with the myriad headaches of making ends meet in the US, car troubles, job losses, long work hours, these students get a complete picture of the American Dream — good fortunes, hard work, endless disappointment, and the possibility on tomorrow's horizon.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Nellie Kluz makes nonfiction films about collective rituals and the infrastructures that support them. She also works as a cinematographer and camera operator for others' projects, including the HBO show How to With John Wilson. She received an MFA in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and was named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 Faces of Independent Film" for 2017. She has taught filmmaking at the California Institute of the Arts and at the University of Iowa.
Visions du Réel (2024) — World Premiere
Champs Elysees Film Festival (2024) — Official Selection
New/Next Film Festival (2024) — US Premiere
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Where is it happening?
FilmScene (at The Chauncey), 404 E College St.,Iowa City, Iowa, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
