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.”
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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.