Abolitionists Thomas Alan Taylor (Theodore Weld) and Anthony Stratton (James Thome) in Sons & Daughters of Thunder.
Through their fiscal sponsor the Moline Foundation, Emmy® nominated Moline, Illinois filmmakers Kelly & Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films have received an Arts Dollars grant for $5,000 from Quad City Arts, provided by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, and John Deere, in support of their new docudrama film project Sons & Daughters of Thunder.
The grant award will be used to cover a portion of the cost of engaging key members of the project’s cast to re-record portions of the on-screen dialogue (ADR--additional dialogue recording) for the finished film in a controlled studio setting.
“We are very grateful to Quad City Arts for this grant award,” said Director Kelly Rundle. “This funding will help with a very important part of the post-production process on the film project.”
Based on a play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter, Sons & Daughters of Thunder tells the unforgettable true story of the beginning of the end of slavery in America. In 1834, if polite discussions about abolishing slavery were considered inappropriate among Americans in Northern states, then eighteen days of public student-sponsored debates on the divisive subject at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio (a border community) were scandalous.
Organized by Theodore Weld, one of the architects of the abolitionist movement, the shocking oratory sparked intense controversy and awakened a young Harriet Beecher (Stowe) to the realities of slavery.
Jessica Taylor as Harriet Beecher in Sons & Daughters of Thunder.
When school trustees slapped a gag order on the "Lane Rebels," most of the students left the school in collective protest. Years later, Harriet's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was described by President Abraham Lincoln as the book that started the Civil War. The novel changed the course of American history by turning public sentiment in favor of abolition.
The film was shot in historic sites including the historic Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio, Augustana College's House on the Hill and Karpeles Manuscript Museum in Rock Island, Illinois, the Jenny Lind Chapel in Andover (Henry County), Dillon Home Museum in Sterling (Whiteside County). The majority of the actors and crew are from the Quad Cities area.
A world premiere of the film will take place in Cincinnati, Ohio and a special Quad Cities screening is tentatively planned for late 2018 or early 2019 on the Putnam Giant Screen in Davenport, Iowa.
Chris Ryder (Sound) slates a climactic scene in Sons & Daughters of Thunder.
Quad City Arts is dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the Quad City region through the arts. The organization’s dual role of presenting the arts and humanities, as well as serving as an arts resource, allows Quad City Arts to serve more than 350,000 people annually in the Arts Center in Rock Island and at over 200 community rural and urban community sites. Support for Arts Dollars is provided by the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, John Deere and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Since 1990, Q-C Arts has awarded more than $1 million for local artists and nonprofit organizations to enrich the quality of life in the region through the arts.
The Moline Foundation serves as a catalyst and leader in encouraging philanthropy and channeling resources to meet the needs of the Quad Cities and the surrounding area. The Moline Foundation serves the donors, citizens, and non-profit organizations in the counties of Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, Warren, Henderson, and McDonough in Illinois, and Scott County in Iowa.
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and Regional Emmy® nominated independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.