As a kid, it’s easy to see Iowa as lacking in spectacle. But I’d wager we Iowa kids have the best imaginations because of it. With fewer shiny distractions, creatives are able to devote themselves to a craft.
Joshua Johnson, raised in West Des Moines, is one of those former kids. His childhood love for film has evolved into a career in screenwriting.
“The thing that stood out to me being from Iowa is that the movies acted as a portal to another world,” Johnson said. “In a way, that sort of allowed me to get outside of the quiet suburbs and see a diversity of people, a diversity of experiences. You can watch foreign films and see what life is like in Korea or France — even big cities were foreign to me. … It grabbed my imagination. I felt like I could learn about the world through those stories and through film.”…