ROANOKE, Va. – As a part of a capstone project at Roanoke College, students are either able to write a research paper or put together a more creative project.
Owen Collander chose to work on a documentary that tells the stories of six local veterans.
Collander is majoring in history and while he enjoys the history you’ll find in textbooks, he is also fascinated with the stories that aren’t told very often.
“I also like the history that isn’t often looked at. The everyday kind of stories that people have to share. I never thought that the stories that I would hear from these people doing the documentary, I could have never imagined it at first,” Collander said.
Dozens of people watched the premiere of Collander’s work titled, “The Untold Stories of Roanoke Valley Veterans” at the Grandin Theatre. The documentary focused on the lives of these veterans both before, during, and post-deployment.
“I hope people learn about what it’s like to be a veteran in Roanoke and the Roanoke valley,” Collander said.
Following the film, some of the veterans that were featured in the documentary were on a panel for a Q&A.