The Bettendorf Public Library presents Jessica Taylor and Thomas Alan Taylor in Community Connections' “Sons & Daughters of Thunder” Clips and Q&A -- February 17.
Thursday, February 17, 1:30 p.m.
Presented by the Bettendorf Public Library
In the Bettendorf Public Library's latest event in its "Community Connections" series, a true-life tale involving social reformer Frederick Douglass, iconic author Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the United States' first public discussions about abolition will be explored on February 17 through scenes from Sons & Daughters of Thunder, the locally produced 2019 drama boasting the talents of Fourth Wall Films' Kelly and Tammy Rundle and more than two dozen familiar area performers.
In Sons & Daughters of Thunder's early-19th-Century setting, Christianity is at a crossroads, with fellows in the faith taking sides for and against the South’s institution of slavery based on their interpretations of the scriptures. If, however, polite discussion about abolishing slavery was considered inappropriate in Northern states, then 18 days of public, student-sponsored debates on the divisive subject at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, were positively 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 to the horrors of slavery. And when school trustees slapped a gag order on the “Lane Rebels,” most of the students left the school in collective protest. Inspired by the debates and her firsthand observations of slavery across the Ohio River, Beecher went on to write the classic novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Sons & Daughters of Thunder tells the unforgettable true story of the beginning of slavery's end in America.
Based on the play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter, the film is the work of Fourth Wall Films' Mid-America Emmy Award nominees Kelly and Tammy Rundle, and among its accolades, their film received the Harriet Beecher Stowe Power of Voice Award at the Over-the-Rhine International Film Festival, won seven Iowa Motion Picture Awards, and received three Mid-America Emmy nominations in 2020. The Rundles' previous projects have include such documentaries as Villisca: Living with a Mystery, Lost Nation: The Ioway, Country School: One Room, Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg, and River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6. Principal photography for the film took place at several historic sites in the Quad Cities and surrounding areas, including the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Augustana College’s House on the Hill, the Jenny Lind Chapel in Andover, and the Dillon Home Museum in Sterling, Illinois. Filming also took place at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio – the only remaining structure on what was Lane Seminary grounds – and Sons & Daughters of Thunder boasts an original, Iowa Motion Picture Award-winning score by William Campbell, the composer and St. Ambrose University professor behind the Academy Award-nominated documentary Lifeboat.
The roles of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Theodore Weld are portrayed by married actors Jessica Taylor and Thomas Alan Taylor, familiar to area audiences from roles in such stage productions as the QC Theatre Workshop's Venus in Fur, Broken, and A Green River. Joining them in the Sons & Daughters of Thunder cast, meanwhile, are more than two dozen additional talents whom area audiences will recognize from local film and theatre productions, among them: Lora Adams, Don Denton, Pat Flaherty, Dave Furness, Don Hazen, Janos Horvath, Dave Juehring, Lisa Kahn, Michael Kennedy, Kimberly Ann Kurtenbach, Justin Marxen, Joe Maubach, Daniel Rairdin-Hale, Reader employee Mike Schulz, Tim Stompanato, Anthony Stratton, Tristan Layne Tapscott, and Tom Walljasper, with Dee Canfield providing narration.
Along with clips from the film, Kelly and Tammy Rundle's Q&A on Sons & Daughters of Thunder will be presented virtually on Febryary 17 at 1:30 p.m., via Fourth Wall Films' Facebook page, participation is free, and more information on the event and the “Community Connections” series is available by calling (563)344-4175 and visiting BettendorfLibrary.com.
