English Valleys grad premieres documentary in What Cheer

WEBSTER — From the Webster United Methodist Church basement, English Valleys graduate Jacob Glandon put the finishing touches on his first major video project.

It’s not his normal workspace. “I needed somewhere to work all day for a couple of weeks,” said Glandon.

The video producer grew up in Webster, a town of fewer than 100 people in Keokuk County, west of South English. He graduated from English Valleys school district in 2019, attended Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa and graduated from William Penn University in Oskaloosa in May with a Bachelor of Arts degree in video production.

“I wanted to do something with photography, actually,” said Glandon. His professor suggested a photo essay of What Cheer, a city of 600 southwest of Webster that flourished as a coal mining town.

Glandon met with a man in What Cheer who owns property that used to be mined. The man unfurled What Cheer’s history for the college student.

“I realized there was really no way to convey that through photos or a photo essay,” Glandon said. He decided to create a video documentary. “What Cheer: Coal, Clay & Community” will premiere at the What Cheer Opera House this weekend.

  Buy Photo

“It’s about the history of What Cheer … and the changes that the town and the people have gone through,” said Glandon. “So it really starts off with how What Cheer got its name.”

The documentary reveals that What Cheer is more than a former coal mining town. It explores the clay product factory, the opera house, churches and the Freedom Rock in addition to the coal, said Glandon.

The first of the independent film-maker’s documentary won’t be his last. “I think I want to keep doing documentary-style productions. Whether that’s short form or long form, I don’t know yet,” Glandon said.

  Buy Photo

Glandon’s interest leans more toward people than places. “Anything that really interests me is something I want to explore,” he said. “I have some stuff I’m looking to for the future.”

Glandon’s photos and information about the What Cheer documentary, produced under the name Black Oak Films, are online at jacobglandon.com. He uses YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to promote his work.

“Our [What Cheer] trailer has, like, 600 likes on YouTube, so that’s pretty cool,” said Glandon.

The documentary will show at the opera house in What Cheer at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday for a freewill offering. “We didn’t want to discourage anybody from coming by putting an admission fee,” said Glandon.

He’s hoping to sell DVDs of the documentary later and plans to sell them at the What Cheer flea market in October.