NORTH LIBERTY, IOWA (April 19, 2022) — Iowa mobile-home residents invite the public to view the new documentary film A Decent Home at several upcoming community screenings.
Directed by filmmaker Sara Terry, A Decent Home is a feature-length documentary about mobile homes and the wealth gap. The film features the story of Golfview mobile-home park residents in North Liberty, Iowa, who banded together to fight back after a Utah-based private equity firm called Havenpark Communities (formerly Havenpark Capital) bought their park and increased lot rents in 2019. Issues raised in the film have become only more pressing for Iowans as Havenpark and other private equity firms have continued to buy up parks around the state.
A Decent Home’s Iowa premiere will be at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, followed by a screening open to the public at Drake University Law School in Des Moines and two screenings at FilmScene in Iowa City. Screenings in each location will include community discussions with the filmmaking team and Iowa Manufactured Home Residents. Time and location details are as follows:
Dubuque — Julien Dubuque Film Festival:
2PM, Sunday, April 24
Hotel Julien Ballroom, 200 Main St, Dubuque
Details: https://julienfilmfest.com/film-guide
Des Moines — Drake University & Polk County Housing Trust Fund
7PM, Tuesday, April 26
213 Cartwright Hall, Drake University Law School, 2507 University Avenue, Des Moines
Iowa City — FimScene
7PM, Wednesday, April 27, and 7PM, Thursday, April 28
FilmScene, 404 E College St, Iowa City
In the months ahead, the filmmakers will make a short documentary about the challenges faced by park residents in Iowa, and will also screen the film in several parks around the state as part of a community screening tour.
More about A Decent Home:
When housing that’s on the lowest run of the American Dream is being devoured by the wealthiest of the wealthy, whose dream are we serving? A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic (im)mobility through the lives of mobile-home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else. They are fighting for their dreams — and their lives — as private-equity firms and wealthy investors buy up parks, making sky-high returns on their investments while squeezing every last penny out of the mobile home owners who must pay rent for the land they live on.
