DES MOINES, IOWA (August 17, 2020) — Sons and Daughters of Thunder, a docudrama produced by Moline-based Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films, received seven awards at the 29th Annual Iowa Motion Picture Association (IMPA) Award Ceremony on Saturday evening, August 8. Due to COVID-19, the event was held online this year.
The IMPA recognized outstanding creative and technical achievement in Iowa’s moving image production industry, in all its forms.
Sons and Daughters of Thunder received eight IMPA nominations, and won five top Awards of Excellence:
- Best Live Action Entertainment-Long Form;
- William Campbell for Best Original Music Score;
- Thomas Alan Taylor for Best Actor;
- Kimberly Kurtenbach for Best Supporting Actress; abd
- Kelly Rundle for Best Direction-Long Form.
Awards of Achievement were presented to Kelly Rundle for Editing-Long Form, and to Jessica Taylor for Best Actress. Kevin Railsback received a nomination for Best Director of Photography. Visit https://www.impa.tv/ for more details.
"We are honored that Sons and Daughters of Thunder and several of the talented creative artists involved in the film project were recognized for their outstanding work by the IMPA," said producer Tammy Rundle. “The award for Best Live Action Entertainment is shared with the entire cast and crew, including playwright Earlene Hawley, co-producer Kent Hawley, and our supporters who stuck with us during this challenging project. Thunder was very much a collaboration of gifted and dedicated professional artists.”
Based on the play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter, Sons and Daughters of Thunder tells the unforgettable true story of the first-in-the-nation 1834 emancipation debates led by firebrand abolitionist Theodore Weld (Thomas Alan Taylor) in Cincinnati, Ohio, and their effect on a young Harriet Beecher Stowe (Jessica Taylor), particularly her views of slavery.
Principal photography for Sons and Daughters of Thunder took place in Sterling, Illinois, at the Dillon Home Museum, The Jenny Lind Chapel in Andover, Illinois, The Karpeles Manuscript Museum and Augustana's House on the Hill in Rock Island, Illinois, The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio, and The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut.
Sons and Daughters of Thunder was partially funded by a grant from the Quad City Arts (Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, and Deere and Company); and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council. The Moline Foundation and the Shell Rock Community Historical Society served as the fiscal sponsors for the project. Thunder is available on DVD at LaneRebelsMovie.com or Amazon.com, and it can be streamed via Vimeo On Demand.
Kelly and Tammy Rundle are the owners of Fourth Wall Films, an award-winning and Regional-Emmy nominated independent film production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.
