“Riding the Rails to Hero Street” by award-winning filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films will screen at the River Valley-Port Byron Public Library, 214 S. Main Street, Port Byron, Illinois on Thursday, February 27 at 1:00 p.m. The program is free and includes a discussion with the filmmakers and others following the 30-minute film.
“Riding the Rails to Hero Street”, part one in the Rundles’ ten-part Hero Street documentary series, tells the story of the immigrants’ journey from Mexico to Cook’s Point in Davenport, Holy City in Bettendorf, Iowa, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad train yards and boxcar homes in Silvis, Illinois. The families experienced both acceptance and discrimination in their new communities. 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 over 100 service members since World War II.
The Rundles’ Hero Street proposed ten-part documentary series, will explore the personal and family sagas behind each of the eight heroes from Silvis, Illinois and tell the compelling true story of an ongoing struggle to memorialize them. The Rundles’ Mid-America Emmy-nominated "Letters Home to Hero Street" (co-produced with WQPT) tells Hero Frank Sandoval’s story and was the first film created for the series. The newest film in the series, “A Bridge too Far from Hero Street”, tells Hero William Sandoval’s story.
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 (funding provided by the 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 two grant awards from the Moline Foundation. The views and opinions expressed by these films do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.
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.
When you want to see great documentaries, independent, foreign, classic and other noteworthy films in the Quad-Cities area, visit QCFilmBlog.com for the latest screenings and special film events.
Like us on Facebook!
