PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Tuesday she's still thinking about whether to run for president, dismissing a comment from her daughter that she'd already made up her mind.

Palin and her husband, Todd, were in downtown Pella to attend the first public screening of "The Undefeated," a film about her rise in politics that has stoked speculation about her political future. Palin greeted supporters — some of whom chanted her name and urged her to run for president — outside the Pella Opera House, where she joined 350 supporters for the film.

Palin told reporters that a remark Tuesday morning in a television interview on Fox News by her daughter, Bristol, that she'd made up her mind was either taken out of context or inaccurate. She said deciding to run for president is a "tough decision" and she's not ready to announce her intentions.

"I texted Bristol and said, 'honey, what did you say this morning?'" Palin said. "I don't know what she said, but I'm still thinking about it."

The Republican grabbed the spotlight in Iowa several hours after President Barack Obama toured a factory in Bettendorf, and one day after U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann announced she was seeking the Republican nomination in her hometown of Waterloo.

Bristol Palin told Fox News her mother has definitely made her decision, but that "there are some things that we talk about at the kitchen table that stay at the kitchen table." Palin said she later told her daughter, "What I told Bristol, too, is what is talked about on the fishing boat stays on the fishing boat."

For a few minutes, Palin seemed like a candidate as she praised Pella as a beautiful city, shook hands with supporters, greeted children and signed books. She stopped to answer a question from a tea party activist and heaped praise on Iowa, the site of the first-in-the-nation caucuses.

"Iowa matters because you really are tuned in here to what is necessary and the things that are needed to grow a smaller, smarter government, protecting the constitution and creating jobs," she said.

But Palin said she was in Iowa solely to promote the film, which she said highlights her record of taking "common-sense solutions to tough issues."

California lawyer Peter Singleton, who has spent months organizing for Palin in Iowa independent of any official campaign, was at the movie Tuesday. He said he's still convinced she's the best Republican candidate and is likely to run, although he said he did not have any insight into her thinking. If she does enter the race, Singleton said she would have a solid network of support across Iowa.

Other Iowa Republican activists said they had yet to hear from Palin about her intentions. Bob Vander Plaats, an influential social conservative who heads the group The Family Leader, said she has so far declined his group's overtures to appear in a lecture series in which several other candidates have already participated.

Vander Plaats said he believed there was still time for Palin to get into the race because of her high name-recognition and she would be welcomed. He said her decision to play coy about her intentions was "smart strategy" because it generated publicity for the movie and buzz around her.

Among the supporters who lined Franklin Street in Pella to get a glimpse of Palin was 28-year-old Melissa Hopkins, who had a ticket to attend a barbecue with the Palins after the film. She said she would urge Palin to run.

"I'm praying she'll make it the full way in," Hopkins said. "Hopefully she does announce it here."

Hopkins said the event was the biggest in Pella since its annual tulip festival in May, when up to 100,000 people come to see the town's trademark flowers and celebrate Dutch culture.

Several supporters of Palin drove to Pella seeking tickets to the movie, but were out of luck. Tickets were given to Palin supporters in Iowa, to the local Republican Party, to people connected with the film and a handful of local dignitaries, said Beth Hill, the opera house's interim director.

Steve Bannon, the writer and director of the film, said he chose Iowa for the first public screening because he knew it would attract free publicity. He said his goal with the $1 million film was to make money, not encourage Palin to run.

"I'm a commercial film maker. She has a very different style. She's a nonconformist. She's anti-establishment," he told reporters. "She makes decisions in her own style. In prayer and consultation with family, she'll determine whether she'll run or not. It wasn't for me to make a film goading her into the presidential race."

Bannon said the opera house was picked out of roughly 100 potential sites scouted in Iowa because "it plays right to the values of this film," including small-town America and persistence. He noted that the opera house went out of business during World War I and later served as a barn, a car dealership and a roller-skating rink before local residents decided to restore it in the 1980s.

"Many times they talked about tearing it down, but it just gritted it out," he said.