What started as a spring University of Iowa journalism school assignment has blossomed into a powerful story, told in personal detail through the lives of two Iowa mothers struggling with meth addition while trying to keep their families together. Their concern – and one many Iowans share – is that their mistakes continued a cycle of destructive drug abuse in the families they want to keep intact at a time when drug intervention programs are being curtailed. The story will surprise those who think Iowa is beating meth addiction, and who do not know the problem is so prevalent here.
Katie Kuntz, a reporter working with the nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization IowaWatch, is building a documentary to tell this story. Kuntz is taking research she has done this year and turning it into a short documentary that will serve as an honors project at the University of Iowa, a story for display at IowaWatch.org and, if we hit our mark with high quality worthy of display there, public television.
To accomplish this, IowaWatch has launched a 30-day Kickstarter fundraising campaign to cover equipment and travel costs, and invites Iowans interested in this worthy project to consider making a tax-deductible contribution to it. The project is at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/956461601/breaking-the-cycle-of-meth-use-in-the-heartland-do/ Thank-you gifts that include a DVD copy of the finished project and an IowaWatch T-shirt exist for various levels of giving. Pledges will not be collected unless IowaWatch reaches a $2,200 goal.
Plans call for completing the documentary for a showing in spring or mid 2014. Kuntz, on schedule to graduate from the UI in May with degrees in journalism and mass communication and economics, is working under the direction of veteran news broadcaster Charles Munro. Munro is a lecturer on the UI faculty and an IowaWatch volunteer.
You can view a Katie Kuntz report from this project at http://www.impaq.me/l/pi7H91eSaw
IowaWatch is part of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that does investigative and public affairs journalism; makes that journalism available free on its website, IowaWatch.org, and through media partners; and trains college students to do this journalism at an ethical, high level.
