"The Barn Raisers" key art features the beautiful Marlow-Saak Barn in Allamakee County, Iowa.
The new documentary The Barn Raisers by Emmy® nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will be showcased at a Wisconsin Humanities Council sneak preview on Saturday, October 15th at the Richland County Performing Arts Center, 182 N Central Ave. Richland Center, WI. This special program is free to the public and sponsored by the Wisconsin Humanities Council and the Richland County Historical Society. The one-hour film will begin at 2:00 p.m. followed by Q&A with the filmmakers and barn architectural historian James Draeger and Dr. William Tishler, Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at UW-Madison.
Richland County Performing Arts Center will host "The Barn Raisers" on Oct. 15th.
The Barn Raisers tells the story of barns in the Upper Midwest by examining them through the lens of architecture. The film explores what 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.
A number of Wisconsin barns appear in the film. Also featured are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Midway Barn at Taliesin in Spring Green, the 1897 Dairy Barn at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the story of notable African American barn builder Algie Shivers who designed and constructed many of Vernon County's round barns in the early 20th century. In addition to Wisconsin, the film was shot in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Michigan.
The Barn Raisers was funded in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council, with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Wisconsin. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Wisconsin Humanities Council supports and creates programs that use history, culture, and discussion to strengthen community life for everyone in Wisconsin. The Richland County Historical Society is the fiscal sponsor for the documentary film project.
The Rundles are the producers of the regional Emmy® nominated historical documentaries Country School: One Room – One Nation, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6 and Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT-PBS).
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