Sons & Daughters of Thunder

This film is so well written, researched and beautifully filmed. The story unfortunately shows that we have not come as far as Harriet would have hoped.

Historically accurate and informative without feeling like a lecture. This film showcases the difficult discussions that were being had in 1852, which seem strikingly similar to ones we are still having today.

This fascinating, inspiring slice of influential U.S. history is told with characteristic grace, intelligence and emotional power by Moline-based Fourth Wall Films in its first narrative docudrama, "Sons & Daughters of Thunder."

The patiently paced film, which gathers in dramatic force as it unspools, stars real-life married couple Jessica Taylor as author Harriet Beecher, then 23 (whose father Lyman was Lane president), and Tom Taylor as abolitionist Theodore Weld, a founder of the seminary who attended as a student and led the anti-slavery call. Harriet met Lane professor Calvin Stowe in Cincinnati (here played by Dan Rairdin-Hale), whom she married in 1836, and went on to pen the anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1852.

Rather than traditional documentaries, in which Fourth Wall has excelled in a prolific catalog, the screenplay by the husband-and-wife team and the tight close-ups of the real-life characters puts the viewer in the middle of these sweeping historic events, and brings them thrillingly to life. These are people who lived with passion and purpose.

This is a bold undertaking to tell the story around Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the abolitionist movement. Unfortunately many of the same problems, prejudices and behaviours are still being exhibited today. THe Rundle's have captured the essence of the story and it should be made compulsory watching!