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National Peace Corps Association > News > Polyglot > “Serving America: Memories of Peace Corps” and other RPCV Films/Documentaries
“Serving America: Memories of Peace Corps” and other RPCV Films/Documentaries
By Sarah Kana on Friday, April 6th, 2012
The celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps may be over, but films and documentaries pertaining to the impact of the organization and returned Peace Corps Volunteers, continue to be made, enjoyed and to serve as memoirs and inspirations.
“Serving America: Memories of Peace Corps,” a recent documentary film made by RPCV, Roland Foulkes, traces the roots of the Peace Corps, its mission and history. The film highlights the experience of eleven South Floridians who served in the first decade of the Peace Corps.
Through a mix of archival film and photographs with personal stories from these returned volunteers, the program tells the story of service and idealism while tracing the history and heritage of an organization that has inspired more than 200,000 Americans to work for peace in 139 countries.
“Serving America: Memories of Peace Corps,” a WPBT2 original documentary, that will air on WPBT-Channel 2 (in Florida) on Friday, April 6th at 10:30pm, and Monday, April 9th at 10:30pm.
Film has been an important medium for telling the Peace Corps stories, in addition to Roland Foulkes’s documentary; following are some updates for films projects made by and/or about RPCVs.
- “Refugee City” - Tracy Sutherland (Sierra Leone 99-90) Refugee City is a short, fictional film about a military widow, Helene (her husband has died in Iraq), and an Iraqi refugee, Jamil, who dreams of becoming a cowboy. The two of them form this fragile bond over his love of cowboy mythology and everything western. But it’s not an easy friendship. There are a lot of distances for them to cover. And that is what this film is about: two unlikely friends in a particular geography. They are in a kind of limbo, the space between a haunted past and an improbable future. Between who they are and who they wish they were. The land between where they are from and where they want to go. They find themselves in Refugee City.
- “The Whole of the Moon” - Charles Portney (Zaire 88-90) is working on a film that he says will “help spread Peace Corps to a new generation.”
- “Mule” - Tony D’Souza’s (Cote d’Ivoire 00-02, Madagascar 02-03) third novel, Mule, is on the fast track at Warner Brothers to be turned into a major motion picture.
Peace Corps filmmaker? Know of other video/film projects? Let us know!
Hi all, Charles has a video letter to RPCV’s on YouTube about his film “The Whole of the Moon”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8CVktHXbc&feature=youtu.be
He is still looking for funding to get the project off the ground. Check out his crowdfunding site on Indiegogo.
http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Whole-of-the-Moon?a=470523
Any donation is appreciated. He’s looking for lots of folks to support the film. As a former fisheries volunteer in Zaire, I would love to see this in theatres!
Thanks,
Mary Peters
RPCV Zaire, ’89-91
Hello. Thanks for the mention above about the feature film we’re developing “The Whole of the Moon”
We have a new link to share, a video letter to all RPCVS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8CVktHXbc&feature=youtu.be
Hope you enjoy. Feel free to ask any questions about the project…
Ashley Tindall is a documentary filmmaker (www.filmarcher.com) who is currently making a film called “27 Months”. For over a year now, she has documented the journey of 3 current Peace Corps Volunteers – in Liberia, the Philippines & Azerbaijan – via their own film journals & on site filming.
Please support her second year of filming: http://www.indiegogo.com/27months
The number of supporters is more important than the donation size, as it help prove the level of public interest in the project to help secure the larger grants needed to get to a finished product and hopefully out to TV/PBS or the big screen.