Country School: One Room - One Nation

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At the Intersection of "Country School" and the "River to River" road

1876 Schoolhouse appears in the award-winning documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation and the Emmy-nominated documentary River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6.

Little did we know that while filming the 1876 Schoolhouse in Coralville, Iowa for our documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation that we would reach an “intersection” with a future project about the historic transcontinental Highway 6.

Situated on the original Highway 6 alignment, the beautiful two-story, red-brick country school is a “must see” historical museum operated by the Johnson County Historical Society.  The school was built on a small acreage donated by the Ezekiel Clark family, accommodating classes for grades 1-8 on the first floor and a gymnasium and auditorium on the second floor—no doubt, the floor where many Christmas programs were presented to the rural community.

Fourth Wall Films' Kelly Rundle shoots interior footage of the 1876 Schoolhouse for Country School: One Room - One Nation. The film was nominated for a Mid-America Emmy.

The structure served as a place for learning until 1951.  Through the years, the schoolhouse has been used for various other purposes, including a recreational center for teens and a warehouse, before it was put to use as a museum.  The restored two-room schoolhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and is open by appointment by calling 319.351.5738.

Visit: www.johnsoncountyhistory.org  for more information about the 1876 Schoolhouse in Coralville, Iowa (just off of Iowa's Historic Route 6). 

For more information about Iowa’s Historic Route 6 and the annual River to River Retro Road Trip visit https://www.facebook.com/usroute6iowa.

Country School producer Tammy Rundle.

Country schools took rough-hewn pioneers and multilingual immigrants and transformed them into a literate and patriotic new nation.  Whether personally, or through a parent or grandparent, the country school as an American architectural icon, is as imprinted on our perception of the nation’s early history as the log cabin and the general store.  Stories told by former teachers and students are often nostalgic, but they are also dramatic, humorous, and heart-wrenching.

Kelly & Tammy Rundle's Country School: One Room - One Nation provides a never-before-seen perspective on one-room schools in the Upper Midwest.  This visually stunning film features a unique country school designed by Frank Lloyd Wright along with dozens of more traditional structures of brick, stone, or wood - in all stages of restoration or decay - in picturesque rural areas of Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska.  Shot in the midst of all four seasons, Country School features interviews with a who's who of one-room school scholars, including authors Bill Samuelson, Jerry Apps, Dorothy Schwieder, Mark Dewalt, Vera Hurst, Frank Yoder, and Bill Sherman, as well as former country school teachers and students.

From the first schools in new states to the demise of their widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s, Country School: One Room - One Nation takes viewers "back to school" for a dramatic new look  at the lasting impact of America's one-room schools.

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.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle, of Fourth Wall Films, are the producers of four regional Emmy® nominated films including 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; and over a dozen award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, The Barn Raisers, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg. All of their DVD titles are available at FourthWallFilms.com.

Order the Emmy-nominated Country School DVD HERE!

How to Tune in to "The Amish Incident: Wisconsin vs Yoder" tonight at 6:30 p.m. via Facebook

Tune in tonight, Tuesday, December 29th at 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. on Fourth Wall Films Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Fourth-Wall-Films-173844695995934 for a FREE Wisconsin Humanities screening of The Amish Incident: Wisconsin vs Yoder followed by a Q&A with award-winning and Emmy-nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, and author Shawn Francis Peters (The Yoder Case). 

This program is co-sponsored by the Richland County Historical Society of Wisconsin.

AmishMovie.com

Country School Filmmakers present new film on famous Amish Supreme Court case Dec. 29

Story by Jonathan Turner, QuadCities.com

Public education and religious freedom have long been big issues, up to the present day. And the latest documentary from Moline-based Fourth Wall Films explores a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case relating to the Amish community.

“The Amish Incident: Wisconsin vs. Yoder,” produced by award-winning and Mid-America Emmy-nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle (Country School: One Room - One Nation), will be presented on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at 6:30 p.m. for a special Wisconsin Humanities free online screening via Facebook. A Q&A session with the Rundles and Dr. Shawn Peters, author of “The Yoder Case,” will follow the film.

Viewers can attend the event at www.facebook.com/Fourth-Wall-Films-173844695995934

The Amish Incident: Wisconsin vs Yoder explores the battle over education and parental rights that emerged from a small Amish community near New Glarus, Wis. The 1968 conflict began when Amish parents removed their children from public schools over a state law compelling education beyond the 8th grade.

Three Amish fathers (including Jonas Yoder) were convicted and fined for truancy violations. As a rule, the Amish do not “go to law” to resolve legal conflicts, but with help offered by an outside legal team, the subsequent trial and appeals culminated in a dramatic 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision that defined how Wisconsin and other states facilitate education for Amish children, according to Fourth Wall Films.

The new half-hour doc is a companion piece to their 2019  “The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise,” about a famous Iowa case from the 1960s.

Read the rest of the QuadCities.com story by clicking HERE!

Award-winning “Country School: One Room – One Nation” Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Free Virtual Screening November 22

Courtesy Julie Jontz Lang for Country School: One Room - One Nation.

Filmmakers Tammy and Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films spent two years visiting over 100 one-room schools throughout the Midwest for their award-winning Country School: One Room – One Nation. The crowd-pleasing documentary will celebrate its 10^th Anniversary with a special free virtual screening on Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 p.m. (CST) via the Fourth Wall Films Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/Fourth-Wall-Films-173844695995934. A LIVE Q&A with the filmmakers will follow the screening.

“We have so much to celebrate these ten years since Country School was first released,” said producer Tammy Rundle. “We received our first Mid-America Emmy® nomination for Country School, it has screened in film festivals and other special events across the country, it has aired on PBS stations, and it was released nationally on DVD.”

Courtesy Julie Jontz Lang for Country School: One Room - One Nation.

“The film is as much a tribute to the teaching profession as it is an homage to rural schools,” said director Kelly Rundle. “One woman or man teaching all eight grades in a single room is the ultimate example of multi-tasking.”

Over 80 hours of interviews, vistas, and historic sites shot in all four seasons in Iowa, Kansas, and Wisconsin were distilled down to a feature-length film that tells the dramatic true story of the life, death, and rebirth of one-room schools in the Upper Midwest.

“They did what they were supposed to do,” said historian Dorothy Schwieder.  “There was a time when they met the needs of society. There was also a time when they ceased to meet the needs of society.”

Reed School in Neillsville, Wisconsin.

Film critic Mike Schulz of the River Cities Reader wrote, "Country School: One Room – One Nation emerges as a definitive portrait of education in a one-room environment, a work that's every bit as informative, engaging and impassioned as those telling its tales."  

Schoolhouse near Colby, Kansas.

Along with nostalgia, the Rundles’ journey revealed a few surprises: guns in school, bullying, lunch-stealing ponies, severe weather stories, a country school designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the passion former students, teachers, and preservationists have for these sometimes forgotten and neglected little schools that still dot the rural landscape.

Country School also examines how one-room schools Americanized European and Eastern European immigrants during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

“One-room schools are a page in American history that is turning, and perhaps in another generation or two, there will be no one left to tell the story,” said writer Bill Samuelson.

Bennington No. 4 in Waterloo, Iowa.

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

Fourth Wall Films is a film and video production and distribution company formerly based in Los Angeles and now based in the Iowa-Illinois Quad Cities.

Remembering Nona Hansmeier from "Country School"

Nona Hansmeier with "Country School: One Room - One Nation" producer Tammy Rundle.

Meeting Nona Hansmeier in 2007 while filming our documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation was one of the highlights of the project. She was the stuff that good country school teachers were made of--multi-taskers, passionate about teaching, a love for children, talented with a knowledge in many subjects, creative and innovative, stern but compassionate,  and athletic enough to play Annie, Annie Over, Kick the Can, swing a bat and hit a ball, and play Duck and Geese in the snow with her students (grades 1-8).

She relished her country school days and we were grateful she shared her experiences with us for the film. Country School: One Room - One Nation went on to receive a regional Emmy nomination. It was the experiences shared by the one-room school teachers and students in the film that captured viewers' hearts, and garnered the documentary numerous awards at film festivals.

Nona passed away on Sunday, October 18, 2020 at the age of 95, in Waukon, Iowa.  She was born on July 18, 1925, at the rural Rossville, Iowa home of her parents and attended school at Jefferson #7. She graduated from Waukon High School in 1942, where she took the Normal Training curriculum. Thirty-five years later, in 1977, she received her B.A. in Education from Upper Iowa University.

From her obituary: "Nona had a passion for teaching and a love of kids that translated to a long and successful career in education. She started as an elementary teacher in area rural schools and then spent 31 years teaching 4th grade in the Allamakee Community School District. Even though she retired from full-time teaching in 1990, she remained involved as a substitute teacher until 2006. Nona was an active and vital supporter of her profession and her community. She was a lifetime member of the National Education Association and the Iowa State Education Association and, in later years, the Allamakee County Retired Teachers... Nona’s positive attitude toward life and love for people were contagious and she expressed them beautifully in how she lived. Some of Nona’s favorite sayings were: “Kids are special people”; “There is good in everyone—look for it and forget the bad” and “Be slow to speak—put your brain in gear before opening your mouth because words can’t be taken back.”"

We will miss Nona Hansmeier and know there are many others whose lives she touched. The wonderful thing about the film is that amazing teachers like Nona will forever light up the screen and teach us, inspire us, make us laugh. We thank Nona for all she did and all she gave to the profession of education.

We will dedicate the special 10th Anniversary online screening celebration of Country School: One Room - One Nation to Nona Hansmeier, and honor the memories of others we have lost over the years who were an important part of the film project. The showing will take place via Facebook on Sunday, November 22 at 3:00 p.m. with a Q&A with filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle.

Click on this link for details and the screening event: https://www.facebook.com/Fourth-Wall-Films-173844695995934.

Country schools took rough-hewn pioneers and multilingual immigrants and transformed them into a literate and patriotic new nation.  Whether personally, or through a parent or grandparent, the country school as an American architectural icon, is as imprinted on our perception of the nation’s early history as the log cabin and the general store.  Stories told by former teachers and students are often nostalgic, but they are also dramatic, humorous, and heart-wrenching.

Kelly & Tammy Rundle's Country School: One Room - One Nation provides a never-before-seen perspective on one-room schools in the Upper Midwest.  This visually stunning film features a unique country school designed by Frank Lloyd Wright along with dozens of more traditional structures of brick, stone, or wood - in all stages of restoration or decay - in picturesque rural areas of Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska.  Shot in the midst of all four seasons, Country School features interviews with a who's who of one-room school scholars, including authors Bill Samuelson, Jerry Apps, Dorothy Schwieder, Mark Dewalt, Vera Hurst, Frank Yoder, and Bill Sherman, as well as former country school teachers and students.

From the first schools in new states to the demise of their widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s, Country School: One Room - One Nation takes viewers "back to school" for a dramatic new look  at the lasting impact of America's one-room schools.

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.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle, of Fourth Wall Films, are the producers of four regional Emmy® nominated films including 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; and over a dozen award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, The Barn Raisers, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg. All of their DVD titles are available at FourthWallFilms.com.

 

A 10th Anniversary "Country School" Virtual Screening Event Nov. 22

What better way to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the award-winning Country School: One Room - One Nation, than with the film's fans, family, friends, country school "kids" and teachers!

The Emmy® nominated documentary will be showcased in a Special 10th Anniversary Virtual Screening event on Sunday, November 22, 3:00-5:00 p.m. Q&A with filmmakers Tammy and Kelly Rundle will follow the film presentation.

More details will be posted on the virtual screening and how to attend soon.

The Rundles spent two years visiting over 70 one-room schools in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, and gathered over 80 hours of interviews, vistas, and historic sites shot in all four seasons and distilled it down to a feature-length documentary that tells the dramatic true story of the life, death, and rebirth of one-room schools in the Upper Midwest.

“They did what they were supposed to do,” said historian Dorothy Schwieder.  “There was a time when they met the needs of society.  There was also a time when they ceased to meet the needs of society.”

Along with the expected nostalgia, the Rundles’ journey revealed a few surprises: guns in school, bullying, lunch-stealing ponies, weather disasters, a country school designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the passion former students, teachers, and preservationists have for these sometimes forgotten and neglected little schools.

Country School also takes a closer look at rural schools and how they attempted to unify American immigrants during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

“One-room schools are a page in American history that is turning, and perhaps in another generation or two, there will be no one left to tell the story,” said writer Bill Samuelson.

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

Film reviewer Mike Schulz of the River Cities Reader wrote, "Country School emerges as a definitive portrait of education in a one-room environment, a work that's every bit as informative, engaging and impassioned as those telling its tales."

The film features the popular toe-tapping music by the Just 4 Fun All Girl Band. The group of talented mature ladies performed at the premiere of the film at the State Historical Building in  Des Moines December 2010. The film sold out premiere night and enjoyed packed theaters opening weekend.

Country School: One Room – One Nation received a regional 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.

"At the time we were in production on the documentary, we did not realize that the finished film would ultimately be embraced as a tribute to teachers," said director Kelly Rundle.

"I can't think of a better outcome than honoring those who work hard and are passionately dedicated to educating our young people," said producer Tammy Rundle. "It is hard to believe it has been ten years. We have learned so much through Country School, and we've met so many fantastic people--many who have remained friends these many years later."

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.

Kelly and Tammy Rundle, of Fourth Wall Films, are the producers of four regional Emmy® nominated films including 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; and over a dozen award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, The Barn Raisers, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg. All of their DVD titles are available at FourthWallFilms.com.

"Country School" Filmmakers' New Docudrama receives 7 Awards from IMPA

The Iowa Motion Picture Association (IMPA) gave Kelly and Tammy Rundle's new docudrama Sons & Daughters of Thunder  seven awards during the 29th Annual gala ceremony held Saturday, August 8th at 7:00 p.m. Due to COVID-19, the event was held online this year. The Rundles are producers of the Emmy-nominated documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation.

The IMPA recognized outstanding creative and technical achievement in Iowa’s moving image production industry, in all its forms.

Sons & Daughters of Thunder received eight IMPA nominations, and won five top Awards of Excellence:

Best Live Action Entertainment-Long Form - Fourth Wall Films
Best Direction Long Form - Kelly Rundle
Best Original Music Score by William Campbell
Best Actor Thomas Alan Taylor
Best Supporting Actress Kimberly Kurtenbach

And, two Awards of Achievement went to Kelly Rundle for Editing-Long Form, and to Jessica Taylor for Best Actress.  Kevin Railsback received a nomination for Best Director of Photography for his outstanding cinematography on the project. Visit https://www.impa.tv/ for more details.

"We are honored that Sons & Daughters of Thunder and several of the talented creative artists involved in the film project were recognized for their outstanding work by the IMPA," said director Kelly Rundle. “The award for Best Live Action Entertainment is shared with the entire cast and crew, including playwright Earlene Hawley, co-producer Kent Hawley, and our supporters who stuck with us during this challenging project. Thunder was very much a collaboration of gifted and dedicated professional artists.”

A number of people that the Rundles met while filming at the restored Northbend Community Center in Spragueville, Iowa for "Country School" came to Rock Island, Illinois to take part as extras in the docudrama.

"Country School" stars from Northbend Community Center took part in "Sons & Daughters of Thunder" as extras in a crowd scene.

Sandy Sander (right) and Caroline Bredekamp (left) pose for a photo before filming begins with extras for "Thunder". Both appear in the Emmy-nominated "Country School".

"It was great fun to look out into the crowd we were filming for Thunder, and see familiar faces from several of our documentary projects," said producer Tammy Rundle. "Many of them have become good friends and a part of our lives." 

Based on the play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter, Sons & Daughters of Thunder tells the unforgettable true story of the first-in-the-nation 1834 emancipation debates led by firebrand abolitionist Theodore Weld (Thomas Alan Taylor) in Cincinnati, Ohio, and their effect on a young Harriet Beecher Stowe’s (Jessica Taylor) views of slavery.

Principal photography for Sons & Daughters of Thunder took place in Sterling, Illinois at the Dillon Home Museum, the Jenny Lind Chapel in Andover, Illinois, the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum and Augustana's House on the Hill in Rock Island, Illinois, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

Sons & Daughters of Thunder was partially funded by a grant from the Quad City Arts (Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and Deere and Company); and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. The Moline Foundation and the Shell Rock Community Historical Society served as the fiscal sponsors for the project. Thunder is available on DVD at LaneRebelsMovie.com or Amazon.com, and it can be streamed via Vimeo On Demand.

Producers Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the owners of Fourth Wall Films, an award-winning and Regional Emmy-nominated independent film production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.

Sons & Daughters of Thunder was partially funded by a grant from the Quad City Arts, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, with support from Friends of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation, and the Bix Biederbecke Inn. The Moline Foundation and the Shell Rock Community Historical Society served as the fiscal sponsors on the film project.  The film is co-produced by Kelly & Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films and Kent Hawley. Kimberly Kurtenbach is the Executive Producer of the film.

Kelly & Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films are the producers of multiple award-winning historical documentaries and the Mid-America Emmy® nominated documentaries Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City, Country School: One Room – One Nation and Letters Home to Hero Street. 

Filming on Flag Day in the Flag Day Capital of the U.S.A.

We have a fond memory to share while we were in production on Country School: One Room - One Nation in 2010.  We had the good fortune of filming a Flag Day celebration in Fredonia, Wisconsin where the first formal recognition of Flag Day took place 135 years ago.

On June 14, 1885, a grade school teacher at Stony Hill Schoolhouse in Fredonia, Wisconsin named Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand held the first recognized formal Flag Day observance with his students. He continued the tradition annually before making his way to Chicago and becoming dean of the University of Illinois-Chicago.

By 1916, he had persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to officially proclaim June 14th as Flag Day in the United States.

Stony Hill School has been restored and is on the National Register of Historic Place. It is home to the National Flag Day Foundation.  

You can view the Flag Day segment of the Emmy-nominated Country School: One Room - One Nation above and order the Emmy-nominated Country School: One Room - One Nation HERE!

Happy Flag Day, June 14, 2020!

Kelly and Tammy Rundle, of Fourth Wall Films, are the producers of four regional Emmy® nominated films including 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; and over a dozen award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, The Barn Raisers, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg. All of their DVD titles are available at FourthWallFilms.com.

 

Restored Country School serves as Art Studio and Gallery in Cambridge, Illinois

Photo copyright QuadCities.com

We love hearing stories about one-room schools that are restored and repurposed to serve a community need, education, and even art! We want to share a wonderful story written by journalist Jonathan Turner for QuadCities.com about a repurposed country school in the hamlet of Cambridge, Illinois, and a dream come true for artist Melody Sloat.

New Cambridge Art Gallery a Light After Much Darkness

by QuadCities.com columist Jonathan Turner

After so many shutdowns, economic devastation, and death caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there’s something new and life-affirming opening in the Quad-Cities art scene.

The Excelsior Studio and Galleria – owned by self-employed artist Melody Sloat, and her husband Jacob – will open Friday in a former antique shop at 13013 N. 700^th Ave. (Route 19), in Cambridge, Ill., 40 minutes southeast of Moline. The couple bought the historic building, and did much clearing, repairs and renovations in preparation to open.

“It’s always been a dream. I’ve worked retail for a very long time and I’ve always wanted to have my own shop,” Melody said recently. “I have lots of friends that are artists and they’re kind of creating in their basements and didn’t have anywhere to go. I’ve always wanted my own space too, and we’ve outgrown the studio in our basement, and I needed my own space.

Read the rest of the story HERE!

Kelly and Tammy Rundle, of Fourth Wall Films, are the producers of four regional Emmy® nominated films including 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; and over a dozen award-winning documentaries including the Lost Nation: The Ioway 1, 2 & 3 series, Villisca: Living with a Mystery, The Barn Raisers, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg. All of their DVD titles are available at FourthWallFilms.com.

"The Barn Raisers", from the makers of the Emmy-nominated "Country School"

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