Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Moline-based Fourth Wall Films are thrilled that their documentary on an international movie star from Iowa is an Official Selection at the 2021 Raindance Film Festival in London, England.
The award-winning film, “Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon”, is a co-production with Garry McGee of McMarr Ltd. Raindance is the largest independent film festival in the U.K. and it is rated among the top 10 international festivals for independent filmmakers, according to a Fourth Wall release. “Jean Seberg” will have its international premiere at the Curzon Hoxton Cinema in London on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021.
“We are honored that the true story of Jean Seberg’s life and contributions to cinema will be featured at this prestigious European film festival,” said co-producer Tammy Rundle. “The film has been a labor of love for the three of us.”
Chosen from 18,000 aspiring actresses worldwide at age 17, Marshalltown, Iowa’s Jean Seberg made her acting debut in Otto Preminger’s 1957 “Saint Joan” and starred in Hollywood films “Lilith,” “Paint Your Wagon,” and the blockbuster “Airport,” among others. She is best known for her performance with co-star Jean-Paul Belmondo in director Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking French New Wave film “Breathless” (1960).
Seberg’s offscreen civil rights activism and her financial support for the Black Panther Party made her a target of the F.B.I.’s COINTELPRO and their plan to “neutralize” her initiated a downward spiral leading to her mysterious and untimely death at age 40 in Paris in 1979.
Produced by award-winning filmmakers Garry McGee (McMarr, Ltd.), Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films), “Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon” is the first documentary film to focus on the private side of the international movie star, combining exclusive interviews with Jean’s family, friends and colleagues with never-before-seen private photographs, home movies, and rare film clips.
“Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon” was funded in part with grants from Humanities Iowa, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Iowa Arts Council. The Historical Society of Marshall County served as a fiscal sponsor for the project.
The Rundles’ films have received nine Mid-America Emmy nominations. Garry McGee is the author of “Jean Seberg: Breathless” and co-author of “Neutralized: The FBI vs Jean Seberg” and “The Films of Jean Seberg.”
He received a Regional Emmy nomination in the writing category for “The Last Wright.”
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning independent film and video production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline. For more information, visit fourthwallfilms.com.