Emmy® nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films have been awarded a major grant from the Ohio Humanities Council (OHC) for their new documentary feature film The Barn Raisers. Friends of the Ohio Barns is serving as the fiscal sponsor for the project.
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.
“This is our first grant received by the Ohio Humanities Council for a media project and we are very grateful for their support on this important story,” said producer Tammy Rundle. “We are looking forward to working with Friends of Ohio Barns and to documenting many incredible structures in Ohio.”
Funding provided by the OHC grant will be used to film on-camera interviews with numerous barn scholars and footage of Ohio barns. Release of The Barn Raisers is slated for 2015/2016, with a national DVD release and Midwestern PBS broadcasts to follow.
In addition to the Ohio Humanities Council, The Barn Raisers is funded in part by grants from Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, Humanities Iowa, the Wisconsin Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in The Barn Raisers do not necessarily represent those of the Ohio Humanities Council, HI, WHC, SSNHA or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Ohio Humanities Council is an independent, nonprofit organization funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private contributions. OHC aims “to increase Ohioans’ appreciation and understanding of the humanities” through the Council’s grantmaking capacity and through programs developed by the Council itself. Based in Columbus but operating statewide, the Council provides assistance to grant applicants, oversees Council-developed programs, and promotes the humanities in Ohio through collaborations with cultural and educational institutions. The Council is governed by a volunteer board which makes decisions on grant awards and sets policy.
Friends of Ohio Barns is a non-profit organization formed to support and promote through education the awareness and understanding of the significance of Ohio’s historic barns within their agricultural and architectural context, and their maintenance requirements. To encourage programs that provide resources for their stewardship and conservation as a lasting icon of our cultural heritage.
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.