Country School: One Room - One Nation

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Forest Grove Schoolhouse Fundraising Event Features Emmy® Nominated "Country School: One Room – One Nation” June 1

Forest Grove Schoolhouse No. 5 is nearing the completion of restoration this year.

The newly restored Forest Grove School No. 5 will open its doors to the public for a special fundraising event on Saturday, June 1 at 6:15 p.m. and feature the Emmy® nominated documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation by Quad City filmmakers Tammy and Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films. This will be the first time the film has screened in a country school.  The event includes refreshments, the film, and Talk Back with the Rundles.  

Tickets are $50 and can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets (https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4245519 ). Proceeds benefit Forest Grove Schoolhouse Preservation.  Reservations are due by noon on June 1st. 

Filmmakers Kelly & Tammy Rundle pose outside Forest Grove school after filming for "Country School" in 2009.

Forest Grove School was built in 1873 and closed in 1957.  Restoration began in 2012 and is being completed in 2019.  The school will be opened as a museum and for seasonal events later this year. 

Forest Grove School Preservation is excited to welcome Tammy & Kelly Rundle and Fourth Wall Films to Forest Grove School to fulfill a longtime dream of screening this award-winning documentary inside a one-room schoolhouse.  The number of tickets is limited to 40, so we encourage guests to reserve tickets early in the sales period. 

Sharon Andresen, Forest Grove project coordinator, and volunteer Kris Albert.

"We are thrilled to screen the film in the newly restored Forest Grove Schoolhouse," said producer Tammy Rundle.  "It has been such an exciting experience to watch Forest Grove come back to life with the help of so many dedicated and hard-working visionaries, volunteers, contractors, artisans, donors, former teachers and former students.  It is truly an inspiration and we are happy to be a part of this very special fundraising event."

The bell tower installation.

Country School: One Room – One Nation tells the dramatic true story of the life, death, and rebirth of one-room schools in the Upper Midwest.  Forest Grove School circa 2009 is featured in the film, before the vision of restoring the historic site was conceived.

Film critic Linda Cook, Quad City Times, gave the film 4-out-of-4 stars and wrote: "Another documentary gem...vivid and fascinating."

Country School: One Room – One Nation received a Mid-America Emmy® nomination in 2012.  The documentary has received numerous awards at film festivals, screened over 100 times all over the country, was broadcast on PBS stations and released nationally on DVD.

The Rundles have been documenting the restoration of Forest Grove Schoolhouse since the project began in 2012.

Forest Grove Schoolhouse No. 5 is located at 24040 Forest Grove Drive, Bettendorf, Iowa.  Overflow parking and shuttle will be available from Trinity Lutheran Church at 18137 Criswell St., Pleasant Valley, IA 52767.  Doors will open for the event at 6:15 PM.  Ticket price of $50 includes admission and refreshments. 

Forest Grove School Preservation is a 501©3 charitable organization dedicated to preserving and telling the history of rural education through the historic rehabilitation of Forest Grove Schoolhouse No. 5. Visit ForestGroveSchool.org for more information.

Installing the Forest Grove's blackboards.

Country School: One Room – One Nation was funded in part by Humanities Iowa, Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, the Wisconsin Humanities Council, Kansas Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Eddy Awarded to "The Amish Incident" by Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival

The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise, produced by Mid-America Emmy nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, won a Silver Eddy at the 2019 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival Saturday evening, April 13.

"We share this honor with David Marvitz whose beautiful photography is featured in the film," said director Kelly Rundle.

"We are honored that The Amish Incident was included with two excellent films in the Professional Documentary category: The Collins Story: Connecting the Moon to the Earth - Moon Talk, and Wine Diamonds, which won the Gold Eddy," said producer Tammy Rundle.  "We are very grateful to the CRIFF."

Through the project’s fiscal sponsor, The Moline Foundation, The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise was partially funded by a grant from Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area and Humanities Iowa.  Filming took place in Fayette, Buchanan and Polk Counties, all within the SSNHA 37-county region in Northeast Iowa.  The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Iowa or Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

Now you can view the award-winning The Amish Incident online at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/amishmovie.

Or, order your DVD copy of The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise!  The DVD features The Amish Incident film by Emmy-nominated Fourth Wall Films, additional interview comments and filmmakers' commentary track.  Place your order here: AMISH INCIDENT DVD!

"The Amish Incident" Receives "Scholarship & Artistry Award" from CSAA

We are pleased to announce that The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise has received the Scholarship & Artistry Award from the Country School Association of America.

We are grateful for for this important recognition for the film.  Our thanks to photographer David Marvitz whose beautiful images helped to tell this complicated story visually.

Film Synopsis: 

When local school officials decide to bus Amish children into town schools in November of 1965, a newspaper photographer captures an iconic image of the kids fleeing from authorities into a nearby cornfield. The incident and the photograph ignite a firestorm of arrests, fines, and controversy leading to a unique precedent-setting covenant between the "Plain People" and the State of Iowa. The Amish Incident weaves interviews with key people in the story with newly discovered archival materials and photographs to tell a fascinating and memorable true tale of rural conflict and compromise.

Through the project’s fiscal sponsor, The Moline Foundation, The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise was partially funded by a grant from SSNHA.  Filming took place in Fayette, Buchanan and Polk Counties, all within the SSNHA 37-county region in Northeast Iowa.  The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the producers of twelve award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg (co-produced with Garry McGee), and four Emmy® nominated films including Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, and Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT-PBS). Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning independent film and video production company formerly based in Los Angeles and now located in the Quad Cities.  

Order your DVD copy of The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise!  The DVD features The Amish Incident film by Emmy-nominated Fourth Wall Films, additional interview comments and filmmakers' commentary track.

Place your order here: AMISH INCIDENT DVD!

Fourth Wall Films' Country School: One Room - One Nation is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary. To order the DVD visit: https://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.

"The Amish Incident" Screens March 9 at the Oneota Film Festival

We are very pleased to announce that "The Amish Incident" is an Official Selection at the Oneota Film Festival in Decorah, Iowa.

The film screens twice on Saturday, March 9th at Luther College, and our documentary short "Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City" is also an Official Selection!

Luther College's Valders Hall 362

9:00am - 9:30am The Amish Incident

 

Luther College's Olin 102

3:45pm - 4:20pm The Amish Incident 
4:25pm - 4:55pm Good Earth

Visit the festival website for ticket information: http://www.oneotafilmfestival.org/

We are very pleased to announce that "The Amish Incident" is an Official Selection at the Oneota Film Festival in Decorah, Iowa.

The film screens twice on Saturday, March 9th at Luther College, and our documentary short "Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City" is also an Official Selection!

Luther College's Valders Hall 362

9:00am - 9:30am The Amish Incident

 

Luther College's Olin 102

3:45pm - 4:20pm The Amish Incident 
4:25pm - 4:55pm Good Earth

Visit the festival website for ticket information: http://www.oneotafilmfestival.org/

Order your DVD copy of The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise!

The DVD features The Amish Incident film by Emmy-nominated Fourth Wall Films, additional interview comments and filmmakers' commentary track.

Place your order here: AMISH INCIDENT DVD!

 

 

November 19th Marks the 53rd Anniversary of the Amish Incident

Amish children run into a corn field behind their one-room school near Hazleton, Iowa.

53 years ago, on November 19, 1965, Amish children ran from their one-room school into a cornfield to avoid being bused to a public school in town. The conflict and resulting compromise made national headlines and changed education in Iowa and the nation.

You can enjoy this fascinating and important chapter of American history by pre-ordering a DVD copy of Fourth Wall Films' newest historical documentary film, The Amish Incident.

Christmas and holiday delivery is guaranteed! FREE shipping! FREE gift wrap and message upon request. Just $20 delivered!  To place your order, click HERE.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films are the producers of a dozen award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway series, and the Mid-America Emmy® nominated Country School: One Room - One Nation, Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, and Letters Home to Hero Street.  All of these titles are available at Fourthwallfilms.com.

"The Amish Incident" DVD set for Holiday Release

Fourth Wall Films is now accepting pre-orders for the new The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise* full-featured DVD.

For a limited time, you can pre-order the Amish Incident DVD for just $20 and receive FREE PRE-HOLIDAY shipping. We will also ship directly to your gift recipient upon request. FREE gift wrap and gift message upon request.

The regular retail price for the DVD will be $24.99, PLUS shipping.  Pre-order TODAY and SAVE!

The DVD will feature "The Amish Incident" film, additional interview comments, filmmakers' commentary track, English captions for the hearing impaired, and more!

*Final DVD art and Bonus Features TBD.

Thank you for supporting our Midwestern history film work through your purchase!

Preview set for documentary on famous 1965 'Amish Incident'

Sheriff Fred Beier watches Amish children run into a cornfield behind the Amish Parochial School No. 1 near Hazleton, Iowa on Friday, November 19, 1965. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)

by Melody Parker
Waterloo Courier

Gene Raffensperger stood next to the big yellow school bus in front of a country school and watched as Amish schoolchildren came out of the school. They were crying as their mothers embraced them, and then someone yelled “Run.”

“The children scattered like quail. They ran toward a cornfield, climbed over the barbed wire fences and kept running through the standing corn,” recalled Raffensperger in an interview with documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films.

(View the teaser)

When local school officials decided to enforce compulsory public education laws, making the Amish children go to public schools in November 1965, a Des Moines Register photographer captured the image of children fleeing authorities. Raffensperger, who was the eastern Iowa reporter for the Des Moines Register, wrote about the inevitable culture clash which gained national attention and ultimately led to a public movement for private schooling.

A free sneak preview of “The Amish Incident,” the latest documentary by the Emmy-nominated filmmakers, will be shown at 7 p.m. Monday, November 12 at the Starlight Cinema, 2401 Swan Lake Blvd., in Independence. (First come, first served.)

“We came across the Amish incident in production for ‘Country School: One-Room — One Nation’ and for a while, considered including the story in that film. We decided it really was something important that needed to have its own film treatment,” said filmmaker and producer Kelly Rundle.

He and his wife, Tammy, formerly of Waterloo, have produced 12 award-winning documentaries including “Villisca: Living with a Mystery,” “Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg,” and four Emmy-nominated films, including “Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City.”

READ THE REST OF THE WATERLOO COURIER ARTICLE HERE!

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Through the project’s fiscal sponsor, The Moline Foundation, The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise was partially funded by a grant from SSNHA.  Filming took place in Fayette, Buchanan and Polk Counties, all within the SSNHA 37-county region in Northeast Iowa.  The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

 

Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the producers of twelve award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg (co-produced with Garry McGee), and four Emmy® nominated films including Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, and Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT-PBS). Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning independent film and video production company formerly based in Los Angeles and now located in the Quad Cities.  

Fourth Wall Films' Country School: One Room - One Nation is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary. To order the DVD visit: https://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.

New Documentary “The Amish Incident” Explores Iowa's Pivotal 1965 Amish School Controversy

Award-winning and Emmy-nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will present a FREE sneak preview of their new documentary The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise on Monday, November 12 at the Starlight Cinema, Independence, Iowa.  The special screening of the 25-minute documentary will begin at 7:00 p.m. with Q&A and discussion following with the filmmakers and others.  The program is sponsored by Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area (SSNHA).

Film synopsis: When local school officials decide to bus Amish children into town schools in November of 1965, a newspaper photographer captures an iconic image of the kids fleeing from authorities into a nearby cornfield. The incident and the photograph ignite a firestorm of arrests, fines, and controversy leading to a unique precedent-setting covenant between the "Plain People" and the State of Iowa. The Amish Incident by award-winning historical documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films weaves interviews with key people who were directly involved in the story, with newly discovered archival materials and period photographs to tell a fascinating and memorable true tale of rural conflict and compromise.

“We considered including the Amish incident story in our film Country School: One Room – One Nation,” said producer Tammy Rundle.  “Ultimately we found that it was a complicated and dramatic story that deserved to be explored in a separate film.”

“I go to the Amish community to talk to an Amish patriarch. We’re talking in a room with no lights. There’s no water. There are lanterns around. They didn’t have telephones. And he’s talking about the school thing,” said Gene Raffensperger, the eastern Iowa reporter for the Des Moines Register at the time, “I never walked into one just like that and I’m saying to myself, ‘My God, this is the jet age colliding with horse and buggy.”

The Starlight Cinema is located at 2401 Swan Lake Blvd., Independence, Iowa.  The free-to-the-public program will take place from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.  Q&A will be moderated by director Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films.  Film participants interviewed for the documentary will take part in the discussion.

The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise was partially funded by a grant from SSNHA.  Filming took place in Fayette, Buchanan and Polk Counties, all within the SSNHA 37-county region in Northeast Iowa.

The Starlight Cinema is located at 2401 Swan Lake Blvd., Independence, Iowa.  The free public program will take place from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

Through the project’s fiscal sponsor, The Moline Foundation, The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise was partially funded by a grant from SSNHA.  Filming took place in Fayette, Buchanan and Polk Counties, all within the SSNHA 37-county region in Northeast Iowa.  The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

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.

The Moline Foundation serves as a catalyst and leader in encouraging philanthropy and channeling resources to meet the needs of the Quad Cities and the surrounding area.  The Moline Foundation serves the donors, citizens, and non-profit organizations in the counties of Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, Warren, Henderson, and McDonough in Illinois, and Scott County in Iowa.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the producers of twelve award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg (co-produced with Garry McGee), and four Emmy® nominated films including Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, and Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT-PBS). Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning independent film and video production company formerly based in Los Angeles and now located in the Quad Cities.  

For more information visit FourthWallFilms.com.

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Fourth Wall Films' Country School: One Room - One Nation is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary. To order the DVD visit: https://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.

"Country School's" Jerry Apps new book 'Simple Things' a nostalgic gem, says book reviewer

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Quad City Times Book Review

Ropes of diamonds and gold are not for you.

A fancy car has no place in your garage, your home isn’t TV-worthy, and you’re happy with uncomplicated meals, hold the mustard. While it’s nice to have big luxuries, you recognize your quieter needs – and as in the new book “Simple Things: Lessons from the Family Farm” by Jerry Apps, you’re grateful for them, too.

Writer Jerry Apps during an interview for The Barn Raisers.

When Apps was born on a little farm in rural north-central Wisconsin in the midst of the Great Depression, his parents didn’t enjoy the benefits of electricity or running water. Those things didn’t arrive at the Apps household for many more years, so the family led a simple life with a bounty of goodness.

For instance, on the farm, Apps says, one of the first things you learned was to appreciate tools. Different kinds of shovels did different kinds of jobs, and a boy knew he was a man when he had his own three-tined pitchfork. Apps’ dad was never without a pocket knife or pair of pliers, and Apps’ mother had a different kind of tool: her apron, which was towel, hot pad, bucket, and tear-wiper.

Read the rest of the book review HERE!

Order "Simple Things: Lessons from the Family Farm" at Amazon.com HERE! Or visit http://www.jerryapps.com/.

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Fourth Wall Films' Country School: One Room - One Nation is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary. To order the DVD visit: https://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm

"Country School" Presentation at Black Hawk College's Lifelong Learners Luncheon Oct. 11

Black Hawk College Lifelong Learners Program will feature a discussion with filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films and include excerpts from their Emmy-nominated documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation Thursday, October 11, 2018, 11:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m.  at the Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 4th Avenue, Rock Island, Illinois. 

Reservations are required at https://www.bhc.edu/program/lifelong-learners-program/ by Thursday, October 4th. The presentation and lunch is $23/pp (fee includes admission to the Botanical Center).

Attendees will get a never-before-seen perspective on one-room schools in the Upper Midwest. From the very first schools in new states to the demise of their widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s, Country School: One Room – One Nation will take viewers “back to school” for a dramatic new look at the lasting impact of America’s one-room schools.

Order the award-winning documentary on DVD HERE!