Emmy-winning Filmmakers present excerpts and host discussion for new “Resurrecting Forest Grove” documentary Dec. 28

Mid-America Emmy® award-winning filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films in Moline will preview excerpts from their new documentary “Resurrecting Forest Grove” during a free online Humanities Iowa presentation Tuesday, December 28 at 6:30 p.m. The one-hour program, “Resurrecting Forest Grove, Or the Impossible & Improbable Restoration of a Roaring ‘20s Country School”, will include a Q&A with the Rundles, Iowa historian Leo Landis, and Forest Grove preservationist Sharon Andresen. Viewers can attend the event via Fourth Wall Films’ Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Fourth-Wall-Films-173844695995934.

The Rundles first visited Forest Grove School in Bettendorf, Iowa in 2009 while filming snow scenes for their Mid-America 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, coordinated by Andresen, decided the 1873 Forest Grove School No. 5 could, and should, be saved.

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 ten-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 2022.

For more information about the new documentary, visit www.ForestGroveMovie.com and the film's Facebook fan page.

Fourth Wall Films is an Emmy award-winning independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.