Harriet Beecher Stowe was a small, quiet woman who wielded a towering, thunderous literary voice that helped change the conscience and course of a nation. The poster for “Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe.” Barely five feet tall, Stowe (1811-1896) is just 23 in the award-winning docudrama “Sons & Daughters of Thunder (2019) by Moline-based filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films. A half-hour companion documentary, “Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe,” premiered last February on WQPT-PBS, and will be presented online by the Bettendorf Public Library on Thursday, Feb. 18... Read More

It’s been a HUGE day for Tammy and Kelly Rundle and their Fourth Wall Films Crew! The morning began and the afternoon has continued with news of nominations for major awards! Tammy announced on her Facebook this morning: We awoke to some marvelous news! “Sons & Daughters of Thunder” has received a nomination for a Mid-America Emmy in the Arts/Entertainment category! “Thunder” was produced by Tammy Rundle, Kelly Rundle, Kent Hawley, and Executive Producer Kimberly Kurtenbach. The film is based on a beautiful play by Earlene Hawley and Curtis Heeter. Our gratitude... Read More

What year is it? There are scores of protests over racial injustice and civil rights. There’s rioting and police brutality. A global pandemic kills tens of thousands of Americans. A bitter presidential election featuring a former vice president. Debates over law and order and the limits of free speech. Of course, you could be talking about this year, with its collision of cataclysmic crises. But that also summarized 1968, which also featured the shocking assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, which fed into the massive violence in Chicago during the August Democratic... Read More

There are very few shows you can deem “must see” anymore, although not as much due to their quality, as due to the fact that not many shows can truly be described as being targeted for a wide audience anymore. We live in a world that’s become increasingly fragmented and subdivided, and invariably there are few things upon which the vast majority of the population can agree. Entertainment used to be the great uniter of the people. When television began to rise to prominence in the ‘50s and ‘60s, cultural touchstones were based upon events it showcased. The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. The finale... Read More

WQPT is holding a special screening of Ken Burns Presents: THE GENE: AN INTIMATE HISTORY followed by a 45-minute talk with “Charles Darwin” (actor Brian “Fox” Ellis – storyteller and science teacher).  Immediately following, “Darwin” will answer questions from the audience. The screening is scheduled for Wednesday, August 26 through the OVEE platform and runs from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. To RSVP visit wqpt.org or https://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/cb7yx WQPT is working in partnership with the Butterworth Center & Deere Wiman House to present this unique experience WQPT... Read More

In this unreal time of global pandemic, civil unrest, economic depression and a president who views the press (and apparently not Russia) as the enemy, U.S. journalists could certainly use a collective hug. As pointed out in a perceptive, poignant New York Times column Monday, a staggering 7,800 journalists lost their jobs in 2019, according to Business Insider. Once the pandemic hit, another 36,000 media-company employees got the pink slip. And all these disasters came on top of losses that collectively cost American newsrooms half their journalists between 2008 and 2019. After I was laid... Read More

QuadCities.com proudly presents the third installment of our new feature, FUN10, a list of the top 10 things to do in the Quad Cities this week, and every week! Every Sunday, we’ll drop a new FUN10, to give you a head start on your week and a heads up on what’s going on over the coming seven days. Check out FUN10 every Sunday for the details on ten awesome events happening around town. It’s a cool read, and a great way to get started planning your entertainment for the week. Due to the cancellation of so many regularly scheduled events in the Quad Cities – with more coming in every hour... Read More

“Running with Beto,” the HBO documentary that will air on HBO in early spring, was screened at its World Premiere at the Paramount Theater in Austin this morning (March 9) and a rapt crowd of supporters got to see Beto O’Rourke, his wife Amy, and their daughter Molly up-close-and-personal during a Q&A after the film screened. I was seated in the third row on the right when a large group of people began ascending the stairs that lead to the stage there. The tallest of the group, hunched over so as not to block the credits then running, was Beto O’Rourke, who managed a small wave to those... Read More

The lives of bootleggers during prohibition have been romanticized and captured many times on screens big and small, but one of the most unique and interesting tales of a city predominantly run by bootleggers will debut on local PBS station WQPT at 9 p.m. Sunday, May 8 and 9 p.m. May 12. “Whiskey Cookers: The Amazing True Story of the Templeton Rye Bootleggers” tells the fascinating tale of Templeton, Iowa, a town which dealt with the oppression of prohibition by banding together to avoid capture by the authorities. The award-winning documentary tells the tale of how this town of 400 German-Catholic... Read More