Country School: One Room - One Nation

"Resurrecting Forest Grove" airs on WQPT-PBS Sunday, April 28 at 6pm

Fourth Wall Films' award-winning documentary "Resurrecting Forest Grove" will air on WQPT-PBS Sunday, April 28 at 6:00 p.m. Thank you, WQPT!

"Illuminating Forest Grove film shows power of community... I love the inspiring tagline of the new movie (“A Death. A Vision. A Miracle.”) and the profoundly inspirational message of the film – that iconic old buildings that play a central role in society are worth saving and that a community that bands together for that common goal can realize their dreams," wrote Jonathan Turner, Entertainment Reporter, WHBF-TV4.

"Resurrecting Forest Grove" is a crowd pleaser and recently received a nomination for Best Feature Documentary at the Iowa Motion Picture Association. It won the 2024 national Award for Scholarship and Artistry from the Country School Association of America and was an Official Selection at the 2024 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival .

In 2012, a small group of preservationists stood before the hollowed-out shell of the unique and historic 1873 Forest Grove School No. 5. In the shadow of the gray, windowless, sagging structure they decided it could, and should, be saved. "Resurrecting Forest Grove", a new documentary by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Kelly & Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, cinematically tells the dramatic true story behind the seemingly impossible task of restoring a vintage one-room school to its 1920s appearance. Footage and interviews gathered over a seven-year period 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.

Forest Grove School No. 5 was built in 1873 and closed in 1957. Restoration began in 2012 and was completed in 2019. Forest Grove School No. 5 is refurbished to its 1920s appearance and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"Remembering Forest Grove" is available to view exclusively at Forest Grove School No. 5. The restored schoolhouse is open for tours in the summer, and educational classroom re-enactments for school groups via appointment. Visit ForestGroveSchool.org for information. 

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Fourth Wall Films' Kelly and Tammy Rundle won a Mid-America Emmy® award for their short documentary “Remembering Forest Grove” . The Rundles have won 4 Emmys, and have received a total of twelve Emmy-nominations for their various film projects over the last decade. They are currently in post-production on "The Last to Fall from Hero Street" from their 9-part documentary "Hero Street" series which will premiere in November 2024 at the Putnam Museum.

Rundles Celebrate Ten Years & Ten Films In Quad Cities With WQPT Broadcast & Film Festival Selection

March 2017 marks the 10 year anniversary of documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle’s move from Los Angeles to the Quad Cities. Ten films and three Mid-America Emmy® nominations later, their new documentary The Barn Raisers will have its broadcast premiere on WQPT-PBS on Sunday, March 26 at 9:00 p.m.  Their Emmy-nominated River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 will air following The Barn Raisers at 10:00 p.m.  

The Barn Raisers is also an Official Selection By-Invitation at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Southern California, where 50,000+ attendees will view films from all over the world April 20-27, 2017.

“This is a great way to celebrate ten wonderful years in the Quad Cities,” said Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films.  “We are always grateful and honored to have our broadcast premieres on WQPT.”

The film will air again on WQPT on Thursday, March 30 at 11:00 p.m.

The Barn Raisers tells the story of barns in the Midwest by examining them through the lens of architecture.  The film explores what building methods, barn styles, and materials tell us about the people who built them, the life they lived, and the role these “country cathedrals” played in the settling and building of the Nation.  The Barn Raisers is a companion film to the Rundles’ Emmy® nominated historical documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation.

"The Barn Raisers feels like a hymn to the solemn beauty and importance of these buildings, and the Rundles treat them with the reverence they deserve...” wrote Jonathan Turner, film reviewer for the Dispatch-Argus.

Linda Cook, film critic for the Quad City Times gave the film 4-out-of-4 Stars and wrote: "Great documentaries, like this one, entertain, teach us about the human condition and help us see the world in a different way."

The Rundles were surprised to hear from the Newport Beach Film Festival.

"A programmer was looking for new films on architecture for a special section of the festival called Architecture, Art + Design.  They previewed the film and we were pleased to receive word that The Barn Raisers was selected for the festival," said Kelly Rundle of Fourth Wall Films.

“We have come full circle,” Tammy said. “We made our home in Southern California for 18 years.  To have our latest documentary screen there as we celebrate our ten-year anniversary in the Quad Cities seems fitting.”

The Barn Raisers was partially funded by grants from Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, Humanities Iowa, the Kansas Humanities Council, the Michigan Barn Preservation Network, the Ohio Humanities Council, the National Barn Alliance, and the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the Moline Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Jackson County.

The fiscal sponsors for the film project are Friends of Ohio Barns, the Kansas Barn Alliance, KPTS-PBS, and the Jackson County Historical Society.  

The Rundles are the producers of the regional Emmy® nominated historical documentaries Country School: One Room – One Nation, River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, and Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT-PBS).

To PRE-ORDER the DVD of The Barn Raisers, click here:  http://fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.

"Country School" Airs on WQPT-PBS Sunday, September 11

"Country School: One Room - One Nation" the Emmy-nominated documentary from Kelly & Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will air on WQPT-PBS Quad Cities on Sunday, September 11, 2016 at 9:00PM/Central time.

The documentary tells the dramatic true story of the life, death, and rebirth of one-room schools in the upper Midwest.  

The film was modified from its full-length 72-minute version for the 1-hour PBS time slot.  To order the full version of the film on DVD, visit CountrySchoolMovie.com.

IPTV-PBS Continues Broadcasts of Emmy-nominated "Country School: One Room - One Nation"

Taylor #4 in Marshalltown, Iowa, circa 1912.

IPTV-PBS broadcasts continue of the Emmy-nominated documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation by Tammy and Kelly Rundle.   

Country School can be seen on IPTV on Sunday, September 2, 2012 at 1:00 p.m.; on Wednesday September 26, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. on IPTV-World; and on Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 9:00 p.m. on IPTV-World.

Country School was shot in Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois and received grant awards from Humanities Iowa, Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, the Kansas Humanities and the Wisconsin Humanities.  The Rundles visited over 70 one-room schools and interviewed former students, teachers, historians and scholars.

In addition to Country School, Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the creators of the award-winning documentaries Villisca: Living with a Mystery, and Lost Nation: The Ioway.  They are currently in post-production on Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg (with Emmy-nominated filmmaker Garry McGee), Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3 (in release November 2012).  They are in production on River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6 and Sons & Daughters of Thunder (a docudrama based on a play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter).

IPTV-PBS Broadcasts "Country School" August 24, 2012

Iowa Public Television (IPTV-PBS) will broadcast the award-winning documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation by Tammy and Kelly Rundle on Friday, August 24, 2012 at 9:00 p.m.  The film recently received a regional Emmy-nomination in the Historical Documentary category and has won numerous film festival awards and recognition.

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.

Country School was shot in Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Missouri and Illinois and received grant awards from Humanities Iowa, Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, the Kansas Humanities and the Wisconsin Humanities.

WQPT-PBS to Premiere "Country School: One Room - One Nation" March 1

Photo courtesy Sue Grosboll, Marshall Center School.

The award-winning documentary Country School: One Room - One Nation will make its broadcast premiere on WQPT-PBS on Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 7:00 p.m reaching tens of thousands of viewers in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois.

From immigration issues in early schools to the controversial demise of their widespread use in the 1950s and 1960s, Country School: One Room - One Nation combines visually stunning images of a myriad of restored and decaying buildings with surprising, humorous and heartwarming stories from former teachers and students.  More than just nostalgia, Country School also delves into the dark side of the one-room school experience and dispels the myths behind the revered institution that helped bind a young nation together.

The critically-acclaimed film by filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle provides insight into lessons learned from the school days and school ways of yesteryear with a who's who of one-room school historians, writers, preservationists and educators.

The documentary was shot in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin.  Eastern Iowa schoolhouses featured in the film include Northbend Community Center in Spragueville, Brandon Township School in Emeline; Marshall Center School, Bennington #4 and the "R" Little Red Schoolhouse in Waterloo/Cedar Falls; Forest Grove School, Old Schoolhouse #9, Butler #2 in the Quad Cities.

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