Maya Chavez as "Sis" in "Letters Home to Hero Street".
Film Review by Jonathan Turner, Dispatch/Argus
The subtle power of words and letters carry extra weight and emotion in the sensitive, sympathetic new documentary, "Letters Home to Hero Street," produced by Moline-based Fourth Wall Films and WQPT-TV.
Over a deliberate, patiently-paced 25 minutes, director Kelly Rundle (with his producing partner and spouse, Tammy) simply and straightforwardly tells the ordinary (yet extraordinary) story of Frank Sandoval, of Silvis, who was 23 when he was killed in Burma during World War II.
Mr. Sandoval was one of eight Mexican-American men who lived on 2nd Street in Silvis -- known since 1969 as Hero Street USA -- to fall in combat in World War II and the Korean War, the most from a single street in America. He joined the Army on Oct. 3, 1942, and served in North Burma with Co. C 209 Engineer Combat Battalion. He was killed in action on June 26, 1944.
WQPT, Quad-Cities PBS, and Fourth Wall Films teamed up to produce the affecting documentary, which depicts Eric Juarez as Frank, reading excerpts from among 130 letters he sent home to his family during the 20-month course of his Army experience.
The U.S. military lost a staggering 407,316 armed forces during just the four years of its involvement in World War II, and one of the chief values of "Letters Home" is how it tenderly, intimately conveys the personal cost of the war -- its effect on one solider and one family. Frank Sandoval was among four Sandoval sons to serve in World War II; he had five brothers and four sisters altogether.
The documentary features Cindy Ramos in the silent, worried role of their mother, and Maya Chavez (who is actually a distant relative of another of the Hero Street eight, Claro Soliz) as "Sis," a composite of two Sandoval sisters...
Read more of Dispatch/Argus' Jonathan Turner's film review HERE!
To purchase the Letters Home to Hero Street DVD, order HERE.
Visit Hero Street (2nd Street), USA in Silvis, Illinois.
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