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Milagros In Motion
The Big Picture: Robert Nott | Pasatiempo - July 11 - 18, 2008
La Santisima Virgen de Guadalupe didn’t show up for the parade, and the parishioners wanted to know why. They waited anxiously along the parade route in Galisteo - the movie business is all about hurry up and wait - and when the director yelled “Action!” the ’51 Chevy pickup towed La Virgen’s float through the winding dirt roads of the village. But La Virgen wasn’t inside her life-size, ornately decorated shell, and the devoted were befuddled.
It was Day Four on the set of the student film Milagros, and several of the participants said the shoot was going along smoothly, as if one miracle after another had been bestowed upon the production. The short film is a production of the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive, a project of the College of Santa Fe’s Moving Image Arts Department. Partially sponsored by a $1 million grant from the state, the intensive (now in its second year) offers firsthand training in producing, directing, screenwriting, and editing, leading to the production of a short film. Diane Schneier Perrin, a producer who has had about 20 years of experience in the film industry, is the intensive’s director.
Alberto Mares wrote Milagros, which deals with the efforts of a young boy named Alejandro to play the role of La Virgen to help revive his faithless father’s spirit. While Alejandro’s desire to play “dress up” for the town’s annual procession has much to do with his widower dad’s depression, the issue of gender identity is also at play.
Mares was on the set that day, but he wasn’t second-guessing the director or offering on-the-spot rewrites. “You have to let go and trust someone else to translate your story,” he explained. “Remember, the director is as passionate about your story as you are, so you have to step back and say, ‘Here, I gave you a good foundation; take it and build on it.’”
Mares said he applied for the two-semester screenwriting track of the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive program (taught by Tom Musca) because the book Screenwriting for Dummies wasn’t helping him learn the craft. “This is a crash course in screenwriting,” he explained. “It gives you the fundamentals. You need knowledge, and this program gives you that knowledge to move forward.”
Milagros is somewhat autobiographical. Mares was born in El Paso, Texas, but grew up in the north-central Mexican city of Torreon. “All this stuff I saw in my childhood,” he said, gesturing to the procession. “They’re really capturing the feel.”
Milagros director Kara Baca Sachs, a native of Belen, enrolled in the directing track of the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive after working some 20 years as an actress, writer, and director in both theater and film. She called Mares’ script a “lovely little gem of a story” and said it felt autobiographical to her. “I grew up in a little village like this and always felt misunderstood, so I relate to Alejandro,” she said. “In my case it was about being creative.”
Sachs coerced family members and friends to appear in the film as extras; most were along the parade route during the procession scene. She and Mares praised the residents of Galisteo for being so supportive of the project, right down to the use of the village church and the contribution of that old truck. The program has paid off for Sachs, she said. “I think now I know how to make a movie.”
According to Perrin, who was on the set, the intensive has 12 students in its writing program, seven each in the producing and directing programs, and six in the editing program. She said there’s enough funding to continue the project for another year. But the financially struggling College of Santa Fe is still talking with Laureate Education inc., a for-profit organization that runs about 30 campuses around the world, regarding the company’s possible partnership with the college.
A total of seven New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive shorts will be made by the end of July, and Perrin said the college will host a public screening of them sometime in September, most likely at The Screen. Those who attend the screening can find out why La Virgen was missing and what happened to Alejandro. Call 473-6400 or visit filmmakersintensive.com for information.
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