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National Peace Corps Association > News > Polyglot > Documentary Highlights Ups and Downs of PCV Life
Documentary Highlights Ups and Downs of PCV Life
By Erica Burman on Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) Allen Mondell (Sierra Leone 1963-1965) is aware of many emotions—excitement, anxiety, and fear, just to name a few—PCVs experience while overseas. In honor of the Peace Corps’ upcoming 50th anniversary, Mondell is creating a documentary designed to capture the Peace Corps experience through the use of letters, diaries, and journals PCVs wrote during their service.
For the past 40 years, Mondell has worked as a documentary filmmaker in both commercial and public television. Thirty years ago, he and his wife Cynthia began working as independent filmmakers producing and distributing documentary and educational films through the company they founded Media Projects, Inc.
Mondell is looking for written pieces to include in his documentary, as well as photographs, drawings, and footage shot on film or videotape. While the letters, journals, and articles should educate others about life, dramatic events, and adventures in various communities, “they don’t all have to be serious; humor is welcome,” Mondell says.
In addition to life-changing events, Mondell hopes to hear from people who suffered from boredom, lived amidst revolutions, and experienced anger, sickness, death, and disappointments while overseas: basically “about people trying desperately to cope with the day-to-day problems of living in a foreign culture,” he says.
Mondell would like anyone interested in submitting materials for the documentary to email him . Additionally, he is now raising funds for the documentary through his non-profit company. Donations can be made here or through Facebook.
