Buy or Stream the Series
Typepad, our "Hero Street Movie" website/blog host of more than 20 years is suddenly going out of business. Due to folks like us backing up two decades of blog posts, their system has collapsed prior to its September 30, 2025 termination. We will have new websites and blogs up soon.
Our films are always available to stream here:
https://vimeo.com/fourthwallfilms/vod_pages
You can email us directly for links to purchase our DVDs/Blu-rays.
Kelly & Tammy Rundle
Fourth Wall Films
fourthwallfilms@aol.com
Thank you for your patience! We appreciate your interest and support!
Riding
the Rails to Hero Street,
the first film in the Hero Street documentary
series, tells the story of the immigrants’ early 1900s journey from Mexico,
during the revolution, 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 of Hero Street experienced both
acceptance and discrimination in their new community. 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.
Interviews with family
members, friends, veterans, community leaders and historians are combined with
vintage photos, film, and archival materials to tell an unforgettable story of
American courage, character and perseverance.
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.
Riding
the Rails to Hero Street was
funded in part by Humanities Iowa.
Special
Features:
·
Extended Interview
Comments
·
Premiere Event Photo
Gallery
·
Hero Street Film
Series Teasers & Trailers
Art on the final DVD
may differ from the image above.
$25
- FREE U.S. Media Mail SHIPPING.
Letters Home to Hero Street focuses on a young Mexican-American veteran's personal view of World War II as told through the letters he sent home to his family in Silvis, Illinois. He becomes one of eight veterans of WWII and the Korean War killed in combat from the same block-and-a half long neighborhood now called Hero Street, USA.
Frank Sandoval was
just beginning a new job at the Rock Island Arsenal when he was drafted in
1942. He sent hundreds of letters to family and friends during the two
years he was in the service and the 130 letters that remain tell the story of
one man's dramatic and epic journey from Illinois to India. Killed on the
bank of the Irrawaddy River in Burma on June 1944, Frank was one of the first
of the Hero Street Eight to fall in combat.
Letters
Home to Hero Street features Eric
Juarez, Maya Chavez, Cindy Ramos and Josh Wielenga.
The film is a
co-production between Fourth Wall Films and WQPT-PBS.
Letters was produced by Lora Adams,
produced and written by Tammy Rundle, and directed by Kelly Rundle.
The film was partially
funded by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
DVD Features
·
Letters Home to Hero
Street (25-minutes)
·
Tanilo's Story - Honor
Flight Featurette
·
Behind-the-Scenes
Featurette
·
Film Trailer
$25
- FREE U.S. Media Mail SHIPPING.
A Bridge Too Far From Hero Street tells the story of William Sandoval. Born in a boxcar into an impoverished family of twelve, he joined the Army after Pearl Harbor was attacked and became a paratrooper. He survived several battles over the next two years, but was killed at age 21 in October 1944 following his involvement in what is still the largest air assault in history, the British-led Operation Market Garden. This battle was the basis for the Hollywood film “A Bridge Too Far.” The documentary will combine interviews with Sandoval family members and friends with archival photos, letters and documents to tell an unforgettable story of American courage, character and perseverance. The film will also feature an on-camera interview with military historian John C. McManus, the author of "September Hope: The American Side of a Bridge Too Far."
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.
A
Bridge Too Far From Hero Street was funded in part by the Regional Development
Authority, the Illinois Humanities, Quad City Arts. The documentary also received a grant
from the Moline Foundation.
Special
Features:
·
Extended Interview
Comments
·
Premiere Event Photo
Gallery 2
·
Hero Street Film
Series Teasers & Trailers
Art on the final DVD
may differ from the image above.
$25
- FREE U.S. Media Mail SHIPPING.
An Infantryman from Hero Street tells the true story of Pvt. Joseph Sandoval who was born in a boxcar to Mexican immigrants in the Silvis, Illinois rail yard. In 1944 Joe, married with two young sons, was drafted and shipped to Britain with the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment. His unit helped fight the second stage of the Normandy Invasion in France. In April 1945, the Allied forces reached an agreement regarding post-war Germany, and Joe and his fellow soldiers were told the war was essentially over. Joe was killed just days later during a German counter attack near the Elbe River in Schönebeck, Germany. In the two weeks that followed, U.S. and Russian troops shook hands across the Elbe, and Adolph Hitler committed suicide.
An Infantryman from Hero Street stars
Emmanuel Juarez as Joseph Sandoval, Eric Juarez reprising his role as Joe’s
brother Frank Sandoval, and actor Matt Walsh as Lt. Frank Houcek. The film
features commentary by First Army Support Command Historian Captain Kevin
Braafladt; Marc Wilson the author of “Hero Street, USA”; Carlos Harrison the
author of "The Ghosts of Hero Street"; and members of the Sandoval
family.
The film was funded
in part by a grant from the Illinois Humanities, with support from the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Illinois General Assembly; a grant
from the Moline Foundation; and, through its fiscal sponsor the Black Box
Theatre, a Quad City Arts Dollars grant provided by Illinois Arts Council
Agency, Hubbell-Waterman Foundation and John Deere.
Special
Features:
·
Extended Interview
Comments
·
Premiere Event Photo
Gallery
·
Hero Street Film
Series Teasers & Trailers
$25 - FREE U.S. Media Mail SHIPPING.

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