The Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will present Moline filmmaker Kelly Rundle with Fourth Wall Films on Monday, July 10, in the next multicultural speaker series.

The presentation will focus on Fourth Wall Films sharing their story about building connections in the Latino community and creating a multi-part historical documentary film series. Rundle will discuss how they built new relationships and established trust with the Hero Street families and members of the community.

Moline-based Fourth Wall Films has completed four films so far in the planned nine-documentary series on the Hero Street war heroes.

The Multicultural Speaker Series seeks to provide an opportunity for attendees to enhance cultural awareness, fulfill diversity education needs, increase integration into the community, and expand networks across community sectors, according to a Thursday release from the Hispanic Chamber. The Multicultural Speaker Series is sponsored by Black Hawk College, Eastern Iowa Community Colleges District and WQPT is a media sponsor.

Tammy and Kelly Rundle filming inside the restored 1873 Forest Grove School in northeast Bettendorf.

The Multicultural Speaker Series will be held at noon Monday, July 10th, at Black Hawk College in the Sustainable Technology Building Rooms 113/114, 6600 34th Ave., Moline. Admittance for the event, which includes lunch, is $15 for Hispanic Chamber members and $20 for non-members. 

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

The husband-and-wife filmmaking team produced their first documentary, “Villisca: Living With a Mystery,” about Iowa’s worst mass murder, in 2004. It took 10 years to research, interview and film the two-hour in-depth study of the 1912 murder of eight innocent people (six of them children) — and the impact the crime had on a small Iowa town. 

Kelly formed Fourth Wall Films with wife Tammy, and moved to Los Angeles, 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 in 2007.

Together, the Rundles have produced 22 historical documentary and docudrama films, museum films, and environmental films. They are the recipients of four Mid-America Emmy Awards and a dozen Emmy nominations, several 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, “Common Ground.”

The Rundles’ “Resurrecting Forest Grove” documentary will premiere on the Putnam Giant Screen in Davenport in September 2023.

In September 2023, they will premiere their new historical documentary film “Resurrecting Forest Grove” at the Putnam, timed to the 150th anniversary of the former school. The film will combine a complex and decade-long restoration of the Bettendorf one-room school with the history of the school, and stories from the Quad Cities in the 1920s.

Currently, the Rundles 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 Infantryman From Hero Street: Joseph Sandoval’s Story.”

The next Hero Street documentary is planned to premiere in May 2024.

All four 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.

Group and student rates are available for the Hispanic Chamber series. To find out more or to register for the July 10 event, visit www.gqchcc.com or call 563-214-5160.