Preview of new "Hero Street" documentary is Tuesday

By Jonathan Turner
Dispatch/QC Times Reporter

Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Moline-based Fourth Wall Films will present a Humanities Iowa sneak preview of their new documentary “Riding the Rails to Hero Street” at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at St. Ambrose University's Madsen Hall #125 in the Galvin Fine Arts Center, 518 W. Locust St., Davenport.

The program is free to the public and sponsored by Multicultural Affairs Community Action. A panel discussion will follow the 25-minute film with scholar Jose Amaya, professor of English at Iowa Valley Community College, writer/historian Marc Wilson (“Hero Street, USA: The Story of Little Mexico's Fallen Soldiers”) and other special guests.

If the 6:30 p.m. program is full, a second program will be presented at 7:30 p.m.

Through Fourth Wall Films’ fiscal sponsor the Moline Foundation, “Riding the Rails to Hero Street” was awarded two media grants from Humanities Iowa to fund a portion of production and post-production on the project.

Dr. Jose Amaya and author Marc Wilson will take part in Q&A following the film.

“Riding the Rails to Hero Street,” part one in the Rundles’ Hero Street documentary series, tells the story of the immigrants’ journey from Mexico to Cook’s Point in Davenport, Holy City in Bettendorf and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad train yards and boxcar homes in Silvis.

The families experienced both acceptance and discrimination in their new communities, according to a film release. Around the time of the Great Depression, the families were removed from the rail yards and some moved box cars or built new homes on 2nd Street in Silvis.

Only a block and a half long, the street 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 now known, has provided more than 100 service members since World War II.

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Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated independent film production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.  To view Fourth Wall Films' award-winning films on DVD, visit http://www.fourthwallfilms.com/dvds.htm.