Keota Alum Directs Film

NEWTON – Tiffany Ketcham (neé McClenahan), formerly of Keota, just wrapped up filming “The Gates,” a supernatural drama indie film filmed in Newton, Iowa. The film’s main character, Alex Black (played by Ketcham’s husband Andrew) is a man recently released from prison after being framed. Early in the film, he is murdered by his former partner and meets the gatekeeper of the afterlife. Black cons the gatekeeper into giving him one more chance on Earth, for revenge.

“The overall arc of the story is kind of a bad guy becomes good guy,” said Ketcham. “He realizes that his partner betrayed him and he first goes about trying to get revenge, but then decides that protecting his friends and family and doing things above board is a little bit better way to go.”

Ketcham grew up in Keota and graduated in 2007. “There was not a lot to do (growing up in Keota) so I stayed heavily involved in extracurriculars,” said Ketcham. “I was actually in 10 plays when I was in high school. I never got to do any writing for stage at the high school level, but I would say that all of my stage experience that I got to do in Keota, because it was a small pool, led me to be able to take it to that next level in college. In college, I started doing a lot of writing for plays. And my senior year, I did my very first film, called “Chasing You.” I graduated college in 2012 and “Chasing You” won best film in Iowa. From there, I’ve kinda taken a break. I got contacted in 2022 from the Iowa Motion Picture Association. They were looking for more women to do films and directors, because I guess there’s very, very few in Iowa. And even though I’d had a ten year break, I said yeah, I want to get back to it.”

The film’s cameraman, Cody McKinney, also has family in Keota. Ketcham plans to have limited releases of “The Gates” over the next several months, possibly including a showing in the Keota area, and show the film at film festivals.

“There’s a magic to filmmaking,” said Ketcham. “I know that’s kind of a generic phrase, but there’s something really special about writing words on a page and creating a character, creating worlds, and figuring how to make them come to life and make the audience believe them. And giving people that experience of just joy, of watching a film, living in the moment with those characters, it’s so amazing to see it go from ideas in your head to words on a page to coming out of actors, to see it on a screen and see people’s reactions to it.”