Fourth Wall Films, Moline, is looking to add to its growing stable of regional Emmy awards, as its films earned their 12^th and 13^th Emmy nominations Thursday.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Mid-America chapter, gave the husband-and-wife team of Kelly and Tammy Rundle new nominations in the following categories:

• Documentary, Historical: “An Infantryman From Hero Street”
• Environment/Science – Short Form Content: “Places To Be Wild”

Moline-based WQPT, the Quad Cities PBS station, and Lora Adams earned nominations for the 47^th-annual regional Emmys for two “Snapshots” segments. The first is also in the historical documentary category (among five nominations, including Fourth Wall) for “Your Dutch Friend,” and the second for Entertainment – Short Form, for “Snapshots: Norma Jean, the Elephant.”

Last fall, Fourth Wall earned three regional Emmy statuettes – two for the full-length documentary, “Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon” and another in the Education Short Form Content category for the 10-minute museum film “Remembering Forest Grove.”

The couple’s films have had their qualifying broadcast premieres on WQPT-PBS. Fourth Wall earned their first Mid-America Emmy award in October 2021 for their short documentary “Over & Under: Wildlife Crossings,” in the Environmental/Science category.

The 2022 short environmental film “Places To Be Wild” explores land that is difficult or impossible to farm. If it returns to a wild state, how does that impact people and wildlife? “Places To Be Wild” profiles a successful partnership between a landowner and the Wetland Reserve Program.

By combining insightful and inspiring on-camera interviews with captivating landscape and wildlife footage, the film illustrates the concept of wildlife cores and corridors, and shows how rewilding can benefit people and the wider world, according to a film synopsis.

“An Infantryman From Hero Street” (part of the Rundles’ Hero Street documentary series) tells the true story of Pvt. Joseph Sandoval, who was born in a boxcar in the Silvis rail yard to Mexican immigrants. Joe’s brother Frank went off to war in 1942. In 1944, Joe—married with two young children–was drafted and shipped to Britain with the 41^st Armored Infantry Regiment. His unit helped fight the second stage of the Normandy invasion in France.

News of his brother Frank’s death near the Irrawaddy River in Burma reached Joe by letter. In April 1945, the Allies reached an agreement regarding post-war Germany, and Joe and his fellow soldiers were told the war was essentially over. On April 14, 1945 Joe was killed during a German counter attack near the Elbe River in Schönebeck, Germany. Two weeks later, Hitler committed suicide.

“An Infantryman From Hero Street” features commentary by Captain Kevin Braafladt, First Army Support Command Historian; Dr. Yurida Ramirez, Professor of Latin American Studies, University of Illinois-Urbana; author Marc Wilson “Hero Street, USA”; and members of the Joe and Frank Sandoval family, including Tanilo Sandoval, Georgia Sandoval Herrera, and Irene Mawson.

Lora Adams – who retired this summer from working at WQPT full-time (she’s continuing as a local content consultant) – got the good news today from France.

She said WQPT has never won a regional Emmy but has been nominated twice, including co-producing the 2015 Fourth Wall Films’ “Letters Home To Hero Street.”

WQPT aired two other films that received Emmy nominations. The first was in 2021 – “Stout Hearted: George Stout and the Guardians of Art.” That documentary was directed by Kevin Kelley and produced by Marie Wilkes of New Mile Media Arts, based in Iowa City.

That husband-and-wife team also earned a new nom Thursday for “Standing Strong: Elizabeth Catlett,” a 2023 doc about Catlett (1915-2012), who was a granddaughter of enslaved people. She was mentored by Grant Wood at the University of Iowa and became the first African-American female to earn an MFA in visual arts.

The only commercial TV station in the Quad Cities to nab a new Emmy nomination is KWQC, which got one in the Arts/Entertainment – Long Form category for Andrey Arkhipov’s piece on Davenport-based Common Chord.

The Mid-America chapter for the Emmys includes Iowa, Illinois (outside the Chicago area), Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. The 47^th-annual awards will be given out Sept. 30, 2023 in Branson, Mo.

For a complete list of nominees, click HERE.