The First Annual Northwest Illinois Film Festival will showcase Fourth Wall Films’ two new documentaries Riding the Rails to Hero Street and A Bridge too Far from Hero Street on Wednesday evening, August 26th at the Midway Drive-In Theatre in Sterling, Illinois.
The Northwest Illinois "Shorts-A-Palooza" Film Festival will screen eight short films between 8:00 p.m. and Midnight. The event is FREE, but ADVANCE TICKET REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/first-annual-nw-illinois-film-festival-shorts-a-palooza-tickets-116673207705. One ticket per vehicle with a maximum of four occupants per vehicle.
The Midway Drive-In Theatre is located at 91 Palmyra Road, Sterling, Illinois. Visit The Drive-In opens at 7:00 p.m. Read more about the films and filmmakers at https://www.nwillinoisfilmfestival.com/.
The Northwest Illinois Film Festival will follow the appropriate public health and safety protocols, including wearing facial masks and social distancing.
Read the Midway Drive-In Theatre COVID-19 Protocol at before attending:
"The Northwest Illinois Film Office is dedicated to assisting film projects find the right locations, navigate local regulations and State film incentives, and identify local cast, crew and supply chain. The film office also promotes Illinois filmmakers and their projects through events like our annual Northwest Illinois Film Festival," said Gary Camarano, Executive Director.
Riding the Rails to Hero Street explores the immigrants’ journey from Mexico to the Quad Cities segregated communities of Cook’s Point in Davenport, Holy City in Bettendorf, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad yard in Silvis, Illinois. Featured interviews include Latino Studies professor Brian Behnken of Iowa State University and Marc Wilson, the author of “Hero Street, U.S.A.”
A Bridge too Far from Hero Street tells the story of Pvt. William “Willie” Sandoval who was assigned to Co. F, 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division and became part of the ill-fated Operation Market Garden plan. The day after his 21st birthday, Willie was one of 20,000 paratroopers who leapt into the sky over German-occupied Holland on September 17, 1944.
Only a block and a half long, Hero Street in Silvis, Illinois lost six young men in World War II and two in the Korean War, more than any other street in America of any size. Hero Street has provided over 100 American military service members since World War II.
Filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle will attend the event. A trailer of their new award-winning docudrama Sons & Daughters of Thunder will also screen at the festival. Thunder won seven awards at the 29th Iowa Motion Picture Association's award ceremony last weekend. Portions of the film were shot at the Dillon Home Museum in Sterling.
The Rundles’ Hero Street proposed ten-part documentary series, will explore the personal and family sagas behind each of the eight heroes and tell an unforgettable true story of American courage, character, and perseverance. Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT) was the first film created for the series, and it received a Mid-America Emmy-nomination. “Letters Home” is available with lesson plans to teachers nation-wide via the PBS Learning Media website.
Fourth Wall Films is an award-winning and regional Emmy-nominated independent film production company formerly located in Los Angeles, and now based in Moline, Illinois.
Through its fiscal sponsor the Moline Foundation, the Hero Street documentary film series received partial funding from the Regional Development Authority (RDA), Illinois Arts Council, the Illinois Humanities, Humanities Iowa, National Endowment for the Humanities, Quad City Arts Dollars—provided by Illinois Arts Council Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and John Deere, the Quad Cities Community Foundation, LULAC Iowa, Mexican American Veterans Association, the City of Silvis, and individual contributors. The project also received a production grant from the Moline Foundation. The views and opinions expressed by these films do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.
To order the DVD for Riding the Rails to Hero Street or A Bridge too Far from Hero Street or Fourth Wall Films' Emmy-nominated and award-winning film Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT), CLICK HERE!
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