Multicultural Speaker Series Featuring Fourth Wall Films

Our aim for this series is to provide an opportunity for individuals and organizations to engage diverse residents and employees from multiple sectors in the Quad Cities region, broaden their networks, and enhance their awareness of diversity issues.

This Multicultural speaker series is called, “Building Connections". Fourth Wall Films will share their story about building connections in the Latino community and creating a multi-part historical documentary film series. They will discuss how they built new relationships and established trust with the heroes’ families and members of the community. 

“Hero Street” is a nine-part documentary series by Kelly and Tammy Rundle that tells the compelling true story of eight Mexican-American men from 2nd Street in Silvis, Illinois who died in World War II and the Korean War: Tony Pompa, Frank Sandoval, William Sandoval, Claro Solis, Peter Masias, Joseph Sandoval, Joseph Gomez, and John Muños. The street was renamed Hero Street in the late 1960s.

Filmmaker Kelly Rundle was born in Wisconsin, and grew up in the Quad Cities where he graduated from United Township High School. He also graduated with honors from Park University in Kansas City, Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts (Film, Television, Radio, and Journalism). 

Kelly formed Fourth Wall Films with wife Tammy, and moved to Los Angeles, California where he worked as a script reader, producer's assistant, videographer/editor, and for seven years in international distribution and marketing for Columbia-TriStar Pictures. In their spare time the Rundles independently produced and distributed their first documentary feature film "Villisca: Living With a Mystery". The film screened in Midwestern theaters for more than a year and qualified for the 2005 Academy Award competition. Kelly and Tammy relocated their production company to Moline, Illinois in 2007.
 

Together, the Rundles have produced 22 historical documentary and docudrama films, museum films, and environmental films. They are the recipients of four Emmy® Awards and a dozen Emmy® Nominations, numerous film festival awards, and humanities grant awards from eight Midwestern states. They recently produced content for most of the interactive video modules in the new Putnam Museum and Science Center's local history exhibit.

In September 2023 they will premiere their new historical documentary film "Resurrecting Forest Grove". The film will combine a complex and decade-long restoration of the Bettendorf, Iowa one-room school with the history of the school, and stories from the Quad Cities in the 1920s.
 

Currently, Kelly and Tammy have completed four films in their award-winning nine-part Hero Street Documentary Film series: "Riding the Rails to Hero Street". "Letters Home to Hero Street: Frank Sandoval's Story" (a co-production with WQPT), "A Bridge Too Far From Hero Street: William Sandoval's Story", and "An Fantryman From Hero Street: Joseph Sandoval's Story". The films aired back-to-back on WQPT-PBS during Memorial Day 2023. With help from an Illinois Humanities grant, a Moline Foundation grant, and individual contributors, the Rundles are in production on "The Last To Fall From Hero Street: John Muños' Story" which is slated for release in May 2024.