BEHIND THE BLUE RIBBON

Between the summer of 2024 and spring of 2025, fellow Iowa PBS producer Kelsey Kremer and I produced, filmed and edited a feature-length documentary about one of Iowa’s most beloved events: the Iowa State Fair. Specifically, we chose to focus on a behind-the-scenes perspective, where we followed four people who are responsible for maintaining some of the fair’s most cherished traditions, including the butter cow sculptor, a young hog farmer, the fair CEO and a corn dog concessionaire.

The documentary was released to the public in the days leading up to the 2025 Iowa State Fair.