Documentary producers Tammy & Kelly Rundle filming in Buchanan County for The Amish Incident.
The Story Theater will feature The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise, a film by Mid-America Emmy-nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films on Friday, October 11th at 7:00 p.m. during the 20th Annual Iowa Country Schools Preservation Conference. The Rundles will take part in Q&A following the screening.
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 the beautiful photographs of David Marvitz to tell a fascinating and memorable true tale of rural conflict and compromise.
Art Sensor prepares for his interview in The Amish Incident with producer Tammy Rundle looking on.
The film won a Silver Eddy Award at the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, and was an official selection at the Oneota Film Festival. It also received the Scholarship and Artistry Award from the Country School Association of America.
With the fiscal sponsorship of The Moline Foundation, The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise was partially funded by a grant from Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area, and from Humanities Iowa.
Two other films will screen during the evening program--Roll Call on the Prairie: A collection of oral stories recalling rural school life and times presented by Mary Doak, Grundy Center Historical Society; and Iowa’s Unsung Prairie Transformation to Farms and One-Room Schools 1870-1900 presented by Sandra Host. The Story Theater and Grand Opera House is located at 512 Broad Street in Story City, Iowa.
The 20th Annual Iowa Country Schools Preservation Conference runs October 11-12, 2019. Full registration $58, ala carte registration available. Contact Kate Feil, Director of the Story City Historical Society at [email protected] or 515-460-1749 or Bill Sherman, Preservation Iowa, at [email protected] or 515-278-2242.
Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the producers of 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, and four regional Emmy® nominated films including Good Earth: Awakening the Silent City, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, and Letters Home to Hero Street. Fourth Wall Films is an independent film and video production company formerly based in Los Angeles and now based in the Quad Cities.