"Lost Nation: The Ioway 2 & 3" Documentary Sequels Receive Grant from Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area

Art by Ioway artist Lance Foster as it appeared in Lost Nation: The Ioway.

MOLINE, IL -Documentary filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle have announced the beginning of production on two one-hour sequels to their award-winning historical documentary Lost Nation: The Ioway.  Through its fiscal sponsor Kansas Public Telecommunications Service, Inc. (KPTS) the new project, tentatively entitled Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3, was awarded a grant from Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area (SSNHA).

Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3 will recount the nearly forgotten story of the Ioway American Indians and document the loss of a unique Native American culture and chronicle present day efforts by tribal members to preserve and restore their culture and language.

Funding provided by the SSNHA grant will be used to film within the Heritage Area's 37-county region in Northeast Iowa, including Neal Smith National Wildlife Preserve near Prairie City, Hayden Prairie State Wildlife Area in Lime Springs, the 1700 Ioway Village at Living History Farms in Urbandale, wetlands at the Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center in Toddville, and other sites.

The completion of Lost Nation: The Ioway 2&3 is slated for 2012, with both films being released nationally on a single DVD with Midwestern PBS broadcasts to follow.  The DVD will include an alternative soundtrack in the endangered Ioway language.

Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area is one of 49 federally designated heritage areas in the nation and is an Affiliated Area of the National Park Service.  Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area preserves and tells the story of American agriculture and its global significance through partnerships and activities that celebrate the land, people and communities of the area.

The Rundles are former Iowa residents with Tammy hailing from Waterloo.  Kelly was born in Wisconsin, and grew up in the Quad Cities.  The Rundles own Fourth Wall Films, an independent film and video production company formerly based in Los Angeles and now located in Moline, Illinois.