The Dallas Video Festival Sunday will honor East Dallas Filmmakers Allen Mondell and Cynthia Salzman Mondell from 5:45 to 7:45 p.m. at the Dallas Museum of Art.
This creative couple, through their company Media Projects, has made more than 40 films. I have only seen one of them — “A Fair to Remember“. It chronicles the Texas State Fair since its 19th century inception. The viewer gets a fascinating history lesson that covers gambling and prohibition, the emergence of technology from power stations to planes and the civil rights movement (did you know there was once Ku Klux Klan day at the fair? You will after watching this) along with the evolution of fried food. And as you watch, if you’re a Texan, you are likely to get a strong sense of nostalgia and pride.
(A Fair to Remember, Advocate story).
I seem to recall KERA showing the movie this time of year, but I don’t see it on their program schedule. Keep an eye out for screenings—there is usually at least one around the time the fair starts up.
The fair movie is but one of many. They have worked on movies about JFK, Jewish immigration, suicide and depression, the feminist movement and African American teenagers in West Dallas, to name a few. Allen just completed Waging Peace, about the Peace Corps experience and Cynthia and Allen, respectively, are working on a movie about women and their shoes called Sole Sisters and a movie about Henderson Avenue (along with daughter Fonya).
During Sunday’s event, they will talk about their films and share the behind-the-scenes stories — “the ones they can still remember,” they joke.
