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.
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.
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 10th 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 19th and early 20th 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.
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 19th and early 20th 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.
The Moline Preservation Society will host a special program on Forest Grove School No. 5 at the Butterworth Center. Award-winning film producers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, and Sharon Andresen of Forest Grove School Preservation will give a special presentation at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10 on the restoration of historic Forest Grove School No. 5 and the new feature-length documentary Resurrecting Forest Grove, now in production. The Butterworth Center Library is located at 1105 8th St., Moline, Illinois.
The Rundles first visited Forest Grove School in Bettendorf, Iowa in 2009 while filming snow scenes for their Emmy® nominated historical documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation. The school appeared to be on the brink of collapse and unrestorable.
In 2012, a small group of local preservationists headed by project coordinator Sharon Andresen decided the 1873 Forest Grove School No. 5. could, and should, be saved.
The Rundles’ Resurrecting Forest Grove, will cinematically tell the dramatic true story behind the seemingly-impossible task of restoring the vintage one-room school to its 1920s appearance. Footage and interviews gathered over a seven-year period will depict the problems they faced and the solutions they employed as they attempted to bring this rural icon back to life. The surprises and successes of this challenging restoration project are intercut with a vivid historical portrait of the 'Roaring 20s' in rural America.
"It has been an exciting experience to watch and document the ‘resurrection’ of Forest Grove over the past seven years,” said producer Tammy Rundle. “It took a dedicated and hard-working group of visionaries to bring the school back to life. It is an inspirational story that will make you think twice about saying, ‘It can’t be done.’"
Resurrecting Forest Grove received partial funding from Humanities Iowa and is slated for release in 2021. For more information about the new documentary, visit www.ForestGroveMovie.com and the film's Facebook fan page.
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.
HELP US MAKE THE FILM! To make a donation and add your name to the film credits and receive some great perks, visit: https://docublogger.typepad.com/resurrecting_forest_grove/crowdfunding-campaign.html.
Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will present The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict and Compromise on Thursday, September 5 at the Black Hawk Lifelong Learners Luncheon at the Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 4th Avenue, Rock Island, Illinois. The program includes lunch at 11:30AM, the 25-minute award-winning film and discussion. The fee is $23 (and includes admission to the Botanical Center). The last day to register is August 30th. To make reservations, contact 309-796-8223 [email protected]
The Des Moines Register photograph that ignited a firestorm of publicity.
The documentary film tells the true story of Buchanan County, Iowa school officials who 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.
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.
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.
The Amish Incident: Rural Conflict & Compromise, the latest film by Mid-America Emmy-nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will screen on Sunday, July 21 at 1:00 p.m. at the Marengo Public Library, 235 E. Hilton Street, Marengo, Iowa. The event is free to the public and sponsored by the Friends of the Marengo Public Library Foundation.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 photographs to tell a fascinating and memorable true tale of rural conflict and compromise.
“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 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.
“As we began to think about how to tell the story, we were surprised that it wasn't just going to be a film about a conflict with the Amish,” said Director Kelly Rundle. “It's equally a film about journalism, and how reporting--in this case, one photograph--can crystallize public opinion on a policy issue.”
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.
You are invited to a special benefit screening event for the Quad Cities own Forest Grove School No. 5 on Saturday, June 1 at 6:30PM!
This special evening includes a screening of the Mid-America Emmy-nominated COUNTRY SCHOOL: ONE ROOM - ONE NATION by Kelly & Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, refreshments, tour, Q&A after the film, and more! Money raised benefits the school and will be used for final interior restoration.
Tickets are $50/pp and support a great cause! Reserve at www.brownpapertickets.com.
Forest Grove No. 5 is located at 24040 Forest Grove Drive, Bettendorf, IA. We will see you 'at school' on Saturday. Don't be tardy!
Looking for great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area? Visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.
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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.
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!
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!
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!