DAVENPORT, IOWA (April 10, 2024) — Quad Cities Pride in Memory is hosting a Red Carpet Film Fundraiser on Sunday, April 28, at the Last Picture House in Davenport to raise funds for Our Story: Pride in Memory, a documentary currently in production by Emmy® award-winning filmmakers Tammy and Kelly Rundle of Moline, Illinois-based Fourth Wall Films (below).
“We must tell our stories now more than ever. First, to preserve them for history before they disappear,” said Rev Rich Hendricks, Chair of the QCPIM Executive Committee. “Second, because we are experiencing an unprecedented amount of legislative and social persecution in the LGBTQ+ community today and people need to be inspired again about equality for all. Now we have this fabulous collaboration with award-winning Fourth Wall Films, but we need the community’s help to make it happen.”
Our Story: Pride in Memory (working title) shines a light on the untold history of the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities’ LGBTQ+ community. From the guarded 1950s, AIDS, and gay marriage to current attempts to roll back LGBTQ+ rights, the film reveals the story of a personal and local civil-rights movement. The new documentary features the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ residents through illuminating on-camera interviews and combines them with compelling archival images and film footage to tell an inspiring story of struggle, achievement, and pride.
“To us, this is another important Civil Rights story that needs to be preserved and told,” said Kelly Rundle. “Every American deserves the right to be treated equally under the law.” The Rundles have produced over twenty award-winning documentary films. The Our Story documentary project has received a production grant from Illinois Humanities.
The Pride in Memory Red Carpet Film Fundraiser will be held at the Last Picture House, 325 E 2nd Street, Davenport. A Cocktail Hour with heavy hors d'oeuvres and cash bar will be held at 6PM. A Sneak Peek at clips from the Our Story: Pride in Memory documentary with Q&A begins at 7PM, followed by a special showing of the Oscar nominated film How to Survive a Plague. Tickets: $50. Seating is limited. Advance tickets recommended at: brownpapertickets.com/event/6269274
This program is not a production of The Last Picture House.
QCPIM member Sara Meyer said about the feature film How to Survive a Plague: “We have a ‘plague’ of hate taking place today and we can learn a lot from the ways our community survived and overcame the HIV/AIDS crisis of the ‘80s and ‘90s.”
For more information about the documentary Our Story: Pride in Memory and how you can help support and/or donate to the film project, visit PrideinMemoryFilm.com.
Established in 2021, Quad Cities Pride in Memory Inc’s mission is to document, protect, and preserve LGBTQ+ history in the greater Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities area, and to educate the public regarding that history and its significance. To date, the 501(c)3 non-profit has conducted over forty oral-history video or audio interviews with key historical figures in the Quad Cities LGBTQ+ community, and collected printed materials and artifacts for a permanent archive at the Putnam Museum and Science Center.
QCPIM has collaborated with Augustana College students (in Queer Theory, Theater Arts, Filmmaking studies) along with Gender Studies and Geography faculty members. A portable historical panel display focused on LGBTQ+ history in the Quad Cities has been created. In addition to the Pride in Memory documentary project, QCPIM is working to create and launch a clickable map-based website that will allow access to interviews and images of artifacts for research purposes.
Fourth Wall Films is a four-time Emmy award-winning independent media production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.
