Documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films have announced the beginning of production on their new film The Barn Raisers. Through its fiscal sponsor Kansas Public Telecommunications Service, Inc., the new project was awarded a grant and the support of Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area (SSNHA).
“We are very grateful for the grant for The Barn Raisers and the support we received previously from Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area for Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 and Country School: One Room - One Nation," said Producer Tammy Rundle. “SSNHA has been a great supporter of our documentary film work about Iowa's rural and agricultural past.”
The Rundles received the 2011 Golden Silo Award for Outstanding Preservation in Agriculture from SSNHA for their documentaries Lost Nation: The Ioway 1 and Country School: One Room - One Nation.
The Barn Raisers, a companion film to their Emmy® nominated historical documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation, tells the story of barns in the Upper Midwest by examining them through the lens of architecture. The film will explore how barn styles, building methods and materials tell us about the people who built them, the life they lived and the role these “country cathedrals” played in the settling and building of the Nation.
Barns were constructed by farmer-craftsmen, professional builders who traveled from job to job and even architects like Frank Lloyd Wright. The Barn Raisers will paint a cinematic portrait of barns and builders, an important way of life that has been largely forgotten, and the film will remind us that these remnants from America’s rural past are still here to be interpreted and experienced.
Funding provided by the SSNHA grant will be used to film within the Heritage Area’s 37-county region in Northeast Iowa, including the Communal Agriculture 1860 barn, Ackley Heritage Center Prairie Settlement Barn, Hardin County Farm Museum Barn, Tyden Farm No. 6, Barn Quilts of Grundy Center and others.
Release of The Barn Raisers is slated for 2015, with a national DVD release and Midwestern PBS broadcasts to follow.
Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area is one of 49 federally designated heritage areas in the nation and is an Affiliated Area of the National Park Service. Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area preserves and tells the story of American agriculture and its global significance through partnerships and activities that celebrate the land, people and communities of the area.
KPTS is a publicly-owned television station that educates, engages, entertains and enriches Kansans and viewers of all ages and in all walks of life by illuminating the challenges faced by society and presenting civilization's highest achievements.
The Rundles are former Iowa residents with Tammy hailing from Waterloo. Kelly was born in Wisconsin, and grew up in the Quad Cities. The Rundles own Fourth Wall Films, an independent film and video production company formerly based in Los Angeles and now located in Moline, Illinois.