The Breathless Arts Proposal
Breathless Arts is the project to convert 128 E Main Street, Marshalltown into a world-class hub for independent filmmaking by restoring the existing building and re-purposing it as the only studio facility of it’s kind in central Iowa, eventually incorporating the Jean Seberg Academy, the first Auteur Theory film school in the United States.
The project is the brainchild of Jude Rawlins, the British-Irish filmmaker who established the Marshalltown-based production company Bella Luna Productions.
Bella Luna’s first feature film Little Johnny Jewel, written and directed by Jude and filmed on location in and around Marshalltown, showcased the town and its talent to thousands of European film festival attendees, winning nine major international awards in 2022 including Best Director and Best Actress at Berlin Indie, Best Picture at the 8 ½ Fellini Film Festival in Rome, and Best Feature Film at the Naples Film Awards. Jude was also the recipient of the hugely prestigious Jean-Luc Godard Award. This was especially poetic given that Godard shot to fame in 1960 with his debut feature film Breathless, which also made a European movie icon out of its star, Marshalltown’s own Jean Seberg.
The Bella Luna team are currently putting the finishing touches to their second feature, Dream Time, which has also been shot mostly in Marshalltown. The movie has thus far received 29 invites from international film festivals, including an invitation to premiere at the Directors Guild of America as part of the Malibu Film Festival in Los Angeles. They also filmed several scenes of their third film, the psychological thriller Mania, in New York City in October, with plans to complete it in Marshalltown, Laurel and Linn County in the spring of 2023.
As well as being a filmmaker, Jude also had a 30-year career in the music business as a successful recording and touring musician, producer and sound engineer, including a stint as a mastering engineer at Abbey Road Studios in London.
The Breathless Arts proposal is a unique opportunity for Marshalltown which, if missed, will be unlikely to come again. This is because the planned location at 128 E Main Street is one of a kind, already the perfect combination of space, facilities, geography, and a built-in successful business.
The Breathless Arts Proposal
1. Purchase 128 E Main Street, Marshalltown, including Doo Dah’s Diner
2. Lease the diner to new management over a transitional period. The plan will be to keep the existing Doo Dah’s menu and vibe, so hugely popular with Marshalltown locals who have frequented it for decades. But whereas the diner currently closes daily at 1pm, under the new ownership it will remain open throughout the day for locally sourced quality coffee, pastries, cookies etc. with a wi-fi connection for patrons. (Finally there will be a hip place to hang out on Main Street without having to spend upwards of $10 for a meal!)
3. Re-purpose the middle floor into pre and post production facilities, costume and makeup departments, catering, camera and sound equipment storage and maintenance. Plus Bella Luna Productions and Breathless Arts production offices.
4. Renovate and restore top floor historic “Oddfellows” theatre, re-purposed into Iowa’s most centrally located fully-equipped multipurpose soundstage, incorporating at 32-channel recording studio (large enough for a symphony orchestra), auditorium, experimental theatre and lecture hall. Managed by Bella Luna Productions LLC and available for private hire to film production companies, but run as a 501(c)3 with profits funding endowments for the Jean Seberg Academy film school, the only Auteur Theory film school in North America, based at Breathless Arts.
Central location for Des Moines, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City. Within easy reach of Interstates
80 and 35. Free parking at rear of building.
Find out more about the proposed
Jean Seberg Academy
Find out more about
Bella Luna Productions