Country School: One Room - One Nation

Review: "Country School: One Room - One Nation" is Lyrical, Lovely...Poetic..."

Fourth Wall Films photo.  All Rights Reserved.
Article Courtesy The Villisca Review.  Reprinted with permission.

Film Review: Country School: One Room – One Nation

by Judith Moriarty

You’ll see some familiar faces on film if you attend Fourth Wall Films’ two showings of Country School: One Room - One Nation. It screens at the Villisca Rialto Theatre on Friday, July 1, and I’m here to tell you that it will set off a fireworks of admiration for Tammy and Kelly Rundle, who also produced Villisca: Living with a Mystery and Lost Nation: The Ioway.

I’ve viewed the DVD several times since I received it in late May, and may I say, it’s lyrical, lovely and informative. A beautiful effort, it’s screening in New York, New Jersey and St. Louis. Released in November of 2010, it also screened throughout the Midwest, has been selected for film festivals and other competitions, and recently won the Country School Association of American’s Award for Scholarship and Artistry.

Tammy, in all due modesty, emailed to me the various awards as “not wanting to seem like they were tooting their own horn.” But I say….toot on. You can toot with them either at the Rialto on July 1, or on July 2, when librarian Pat Means unreels a special presentation on one-room schools in the Montgomery County area, followed by a screening.

As an art critic, I’m here to tell you that in addition to the poetic approach the filmmakers followed, there is attention given to things that were wrong about one room schoolhouses, but you’ll have to see the film to get the full story. Suffice it to say, that if you’re given to nostalgia, there’s plenty to wax nostalgic about, but there’s far more. For example: bullies. Ah yes, they weren’t recently invented, despite what you read about our current problems in schools everywhere. Somewhere twixt the glorious landscapes and the rotting roofs of schoolhouses destined for demolition, is the truth spoken from the hearts of former teachers, students, and further (here’s where scholarship comes in) historians and keepers of the one-room flame, determined to preserve and protect.

The Rundles get an A all the way, plus lots of gold stars. Back In The Day, when education defined success, our growing nation was united by community and common sense. There are shreds of it left, blowing in the wind blowing off the plains, ghosts of what was, and perhaps in those winds blows hope for future generations. Education is a long and winding road. Fourth Wall Films will take you there.

Country School: One Room-One Nation, will premiere on Friday evening, July 1st at 6 p.m., at the Villisca Rialto Theatre, 422 S. 3rd Avenue. A secondary showing will be at 2 p.m. on July 2nd. Following the showings the filmmakers and special guests will host a Q & A session.

"Country School: One Room - One Nation" Reviewed by Quad-City Times

Kelly and Tammy Rundle in front of one of the one-room schools
featured in their documentary.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Q-C filmmakers produce another gem in ‘School’

Linda Cook Movie Review

FOUR STARS (out of four)

Let me share with you one of the Quad-City area’s greatest secrets: Two of the best filmmakers in the United States are right here in our own backyard.

Spouses Tammy and Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films in Moline have created yet another documentary gem.  These two superb filmmakers write, direct and shoot—they do it all.  And they do it with a love for the Midwest, depicting obscure and rare pieces of history with photos and video while interviewing historians and those who remember, to develop a “You are there” tone.

Their follow-up to “Villisca: Living with a Mystery” and “Lost Nation: The Ioway” is “Country School: One Room – One Nation.”

Some of you are too young to remember such schools first-hand.  But I’ll bet someone in your family can tell you tales handed down by a grandparent about the “one-room schoolhouse” experience.  My dad loved to talk about the one-room school he attended in Nebraska, and he really did walk through terrible storms and knee-high snowdrifts to get there.  Not surprisingly, both of the Rundles’ fathers attended one-room schools.

“Country School” weaves together the narratives of historians and those who taught or were students at one-room schoolhouses, along with video segments and photos, including many of restored schoolhouses.  In Iowa, 3,000 of these buildings remain, with 200 of them restored.  Iowa, in fact, had almost 13,000 one-room schools at one time, more than any other state.

The schools were phased out in the 1950s and 1960s, but before that they were full of farm children and children of immigrant families.  In the German immigrant schools, teachers often spoke both English and German so the children of newly arrived families could learn the language of their new country.

The Rundles took two years to complete this movie, which portrays existing Midwest schools in a variety of conditions, from dilapidated to now-restored.  Historians share their expertise along with those who attended and taught at the schools.  The oral history is vivid and fascinating.  It’s intriguing to hear real-life stories of a school system that is vastly different from the one we know now and of teachers who were expected to teach every age, every ability and every subject while they kept the stove going in the winter and maintained order all year long.

The Rundles filmed throughout the seasons, so the audience gets a flavor of what it must have been like to walk to school through clover fields as well as snow.  The settings are beautiful, and re-enactments make the schools come alive again as classrooms.

Incidentally, the movie was funded in part by Humanities Iowa, the Kansas Humanities Council, the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area.

Please see this wonderful film, then visit with the Rundles and tell them how much you appreciate their fine work.

What: "Country School: One Room - One Nation"

When: 2 p.m. Sunday, March 6.  Includes music by the Just 4 Fun Old Time Music Band beginning at 1:30 p.m., a lobby display of one-room artifacts and a discussion with filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Moline after the movie.

Where: Nighswander Theater, 2822 Eastern Ave., Davenport.

How much: $5 at the door, $6 (including $1 online service charge) if purchased in advance at www.FourthWallFilms.com/box_office.htm

One the Web: www.CountrySchoolMovie.com