Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-65) New Documentary Film Focuses on Third Goal of The Peace Corps

[Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-65) was a teacher overseas and is today a documentary film maker living in Texas who has since 1995 been planning to make a film about the Peace Corps. It has taken him 15 years but he never gave up on the idea and now he has his documentary film Waging Peace. It took him 27 months, or as he says, “a second tour” to tell our story. Allen has weaved together letters, journals, emails and blogs written by RPCVs into a film that profiles four Peace Corps Volunteers who are today still trying to make a difference by fulfilling the Third Goal. As he told me, “I wanted the people who watch this to know first that the Peace Corps still exists and that Volunteers are still serving around the world. I also wanted viewers to know that for a great many Volunteers those two or more years of service didn’t stop after they came home, that the idealism, the energy and values that they took to foreign lands came back with us to the communities in which we live.”]

Here is the announcement on the film from: The ArtGroupsDFW News Blog

Award-winning filmmaker Allen Mondell’s new film WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corps Experience was inspired by his two years teaching in West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Co-presented by The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, the North Texas Peace Corps Association, Southern Methodist University Office of the Provost and Media Projects, Inc., WAGING PEACE: The Peace Corp Experience honors and celebrates the tradition of volunteerism and public service in the United States.

The premiere, on June 21, 2012 in the James E. Collin’s Center on the SMU campus starts, at 6:15 p.m. with a reception catered by Gil’s Elegant Catering. The screening, followed by a panel discussion, begins at 7:00 p.m. The Center is located at 3150 Binkley Avenue with free parking in the garage across the street. Tickets are $30 and are available at http://wagingpeacefilm-es2.eventbrite.com/?srnk=2vff . A portion of the proceeds from the film will benefit Peace Corps Partnerships projects around the world.

Allen Mondell has worked in film and television as a writer, producer and director for 40 years. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore and then went to work for Westinghouse Broadcasting (WJZ-TV), first as a writer for a magazine program and then as a writer/director of documentaries about urban and social issues. After moving to Dallas, he spent 5 years as a writer, producer and director of documentaries and special programs for KERA-TV. He and his partner, Cynthia Salzman Mondell, have been making award-winning docu-dramas and documentaries for 34 years. For more information about Media Projects Inc., please visit MEDIAPROJECTS.ORG.