About the Film

The Barn Raisers tells the story of barns in the Midwest by examining them through the lens of architecture.  The film explores what building methods, barn styles, and materials tell us about the people who built them, the life they lived, and the role these “country cathedrals” played in the settling and building of the Nation.  The Barn Raisers is a companion film to Fourth Wall Films’ Emmy® nominated historical documentary Country School: One Room – One Nation.

“How could we create something from practically nothing with just a handful of tools and no drawings? The answer is in the barns,” said Rudy Christian, a traditional timber framer and barn preservationist from Burbank, Ohio.

Barns were constructed by farmer-craftsmen, professional builders who traveled from job to job and even architects like Frank Lloyd Wright.  The Barn Raisers paints a cinematic portrait of barns and builders, an important way of life that has been largely forgotten, and the film reminds us that these remnants from America’s rural past are still here to be interpreted and experienced.

The Barn Raisers was partially funded by grants from Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, Humanities Iowa, the Kansas Humanities Council, the Michigan Barn Preservation Network, the Ohio Humanities Council, the National Barn Alliance, and the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the Moline Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Jackson County.  Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this documentary film and program do not necessarily reflect those of the these organizations.