Sisters of ’77

Cynthia Salzman Mondell is an independent filmmaker committed to making films and videos that she feels have something to say about the world she lives in. Her first documentary on housing and the lack of it, Promise and Practice, aired on public television in 1977. She then teamed up with Allen Mondell to form Media Projects, a non-profit production and distribution organization. With Allen Mondell, she has been making award-winning docudramas and documentary films and videos for 25 years. Their work includes Funny Women, a film celebrating women comedians; Make Me A Match, about Jewish singles looking for their soulmates; West of Hester Street, a docudrama about Jewish immigration through Galveston, Texas, in the early 1900s; Films From the Sixth Floor, six films about the life, death and legacy of President John F. Kennedy for the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas; and Dreams of Equality, produced for the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. They have also produced many educational videos about drug abuse, handgun violence, sexuality, parenting, literacy, and environmental issues. Salzman Mondell is past president of the board of New Day Films, a nationally known independent film cooperative based in New York City. She regularly travels to colleges and universities to show and discuss her film The Ladies Room, a documentary about the raucous and ribald world inside women’s restrooms. She was recently honored with the Topaz Achievement Award by Women In Film of Dallas.

Allen Mondell has worked in films and television as a writer, producer, and director for 30 years. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in Baltimore in the mid-1960s and then went to work for Westinghouse Broadcasting in Baltimore (WJZ-TV) as a writer/director of documentary films. He spent five years at KERA-TV in Dallas as a writer, producer and director of documentaries and special programs. He taught in the Peace Corps in West Africa after graduating from Williams College with a B.A. in American history and literature. With Cynthia Salzman Mondell, he has been making award-winning docudramas and documentary films and videos for 25 years. Their work includes Funny Women, a film celebrating women comedians; Make Me A Match, about Jewish singles looking for their soulmates; West of Hester Street, a docudrama about Jewish immigration through Galveston, Texas, in the early 1900s; Films From the Sixth Floor, six films about the life, death and legacy of President John F. Kennedy for the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas; and Dreams of Equality, produced for the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. They have also produced many educational videos about drug abuse, handgun violence, sexuality, parenting, literacy, and environmental issues.