"Letters Home to Hero Street", a new documentary co-produced by WQPT and Fourth Wall Films.
We have had a long-standing, wonderful relationship with WQPT-PBS over the years and we are honored to work with WQPT's Lora Adams and Chris Ryder to create a 30-minute documentary entitled "Letters Home to Hero Street" for PBS broadcast. WQPT has received a major grant from the Illinois Arts Council to produce the project and we are thrilled to partner with them on this project.
There have been so many 'in our corner' since we began the Hero Street journey. At this time, we would like to take a moment to say thank you!
First and foremost, our gratitude to ALL of the families and friends of the Hero Street eight and the incredible legacy that this short, significant street in Silvis, Illinois represents to our country. Thank you for your stories, your memories, your insight, your willingess to share your photos, letters and materials with us. Thank you for your patience with us and believing in us. We have documented several interviews for the project so far, and look forward to continuing our production work in August and September.
Our gratitude to writer Marc Wilson for his support and for being the first to make us aware of Hero Street and how extremely important it is to preserve the story.
The most difficult part of independent filmmaking is raising the money for any project. 'We are Heartland, not Hollywood.' We are deeply grateful to our fiscal sponsor on Hero Street, The Moline Foundation, which has made it possible for us to apply for grants and approach organizations, businesses and individuals for financial contributions to the project. Doug Miller the Director of Produce Quad Cities stepped up when we were seeking a non-profit organization and introduced us to this wonderful, supportive foundation.
There was one Iowan (who wishes to remain anonymous) who made the first contribution to the film project. She made it possible to begin this journey. We are deeply grateful for the generous support and assistance of MAVA--Hero Street Chapter #4. This group, as well as Joe Moreno and QCM/Running USA, were among the earliest to offer help and support.
There have been a number of individuals who have made donations and contributions to the documentary. Many of you are not from the Quad Cities area, but have followed our work and wanted to be a part of getting a documentary on Hero Street made--recognizing that the story is not only important to the region, but to the nation, and beyond. We have acknowledged each of you in our "Sponsors and Supporters" section of the website and we thank you again and again!
Contributions for the feature-length "Hero Street" documentary can be made by visiting this LINK.
Thank you to our project sponsors: The Putnam Museum, WQPT-PBS, Produce Quad Cities, Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau, WSIU-TV, WTVP, and Hola America!
We gratefully recognize our local media for covering our progress and announcing the new documentary project with WQPT "Letters Home to Hero Street": Jonathan Turner and the Moline Dispatch-Argus, David Burke and the Quad City Times, Hola America!, Doug Miller and Produce Quad Cities, and WQPT!
Today, a piece written by journalist Jonathan Turner ran in the Dispatch-Argus. We would like to share a portion here and encourage you to click through to read the full article. Thank you for your interest and continuing support!
~Tammy & Kelly Rundle, Fourth Wall Films
WQPT gets grant for short Hero Street documentary
By Jonathan Turner, Moline Dispatch-Argus
As if the filmmaking Rundles of Moline haven't been busy enough, they have another new historic documentary project to finish by the end of this year.
Husband-and-wife Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films have made five Midwest-themed documentaries in the past decade, are in production on four others, and are putting together their first narrative feature (the docudrama "Sons & Daughters of Thunder"), to be released next year.
WQPT, the Quad-Cities PBS station, recently was awarded $30,000 from the Illinois Arts Council for the creation of a new Rundle documentary, "Letters Home to Hero Street," a separate half-hour piece from their planned feature-length "Hero Street: A Block and a Half Long and Eight Men Wide."
The short documentary will reveal correspondence from Hero Street soldiers to their families as the men fought and died in World War II and the Korean conflict.
"We are so pleased to receive the grant because it allows us to create a documentary on a topic that is near and dear to our community," WQPT general manager Mary Pruess said in a release.
"I am excited to be working with the Rundles. We have aired all of their documentaries and they always create compelling films that are beautiful and well researched," said Lora Adams, WQPT's director of local content.
As required by the Illinois grant, the documentary will be completed by the end of the year and will air in early 2015 on WQPT, and ideally throughout Illinois, Kelly Rundle said this week.
"It will be a short documentary that focuses on a fairly specific way of telling the story through letters," he said. "It will be fun for us; we get to concentrate more on visual creativity."
"The other film is just a concept right now," Mr. Rundle said of the larger feature documentary. "We see this as being completely separate, just because the style of it will be so different. We will do some reenactments, that depict people writing and reading letters from the past. In 30 minutes, it's a laser beam focus on this one aspect of the story. We're really excited about it.
"We're both hoping that it will increase interest for the larger project, which has been struggling in terms of funding," he added.
Only a block and a half long, Second Street in Silvis lost six young men in World War II and two in the Korean War, more than any other street in America. Hero Street, as it is known, has provided more than 100 service members since Mexican-American immigrants settled there in 1929.
Click HERE to read the full article.
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