MUNDO MILAGROSO
ENGLISH AND SPANISH (DUBBED) / 1995 / COLOR 16MM / 27 MIN
SYNOPSIS: MUNDO MILAGROSO (Miraculous World) takes a candid but sensitive look at the often misunderstood world of Mexican-American folk religion. The film documents the people and events surrounding the Shrine of the Holy Tortilla, the Shrine of the Holy Camaro and the Madonna Tree in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas. Christ or the Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared in each of these everyday objects, creating no small stir in the local population. The film does not seek to prove or disprove the validity of these appearances, but rather to explore the impact these apparitions have had on the community. Considered a breakthrough in creating bridges of understanding between Anglo and Hispanic audiences, Mundo Milagroso has won national awards and been given several prestigious festival screenings in North America. These awards and honors include:
Featured Screening, San Antonio CineFestival, San Antonio, TX, 1997. Featured Screening, Southwest Council of Latin American Studies, Oaxaca, Mexico, 1996. Featured Screening, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., 1996. Gold Apple (Highest Honors), National Educational Media Network Film Festival, Oakland, CA, 1996. Featured Screening, Chicago Latino Film Festival, Chicago, IL, 1996. Featured Screening, Harvard University's Peabody Museum, Boston, MA, 1996. Featured Screening, "Go See" Film Exhibit and Screening Invitational, Greenville, SC, 1996. Featured Screening, American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C., 1995. Featured Screening, Margaret Mead Film Festival, American Museum of Natural History, New York City, NY, 1995. Mort Rosenfeld Award (Best Film From Utah), Utah Short Film and Video Festival, Salt Lake City, UT, 1995. Plus many additional screenings throughout North America.
SCENES: Below are production photos from the film. They give you an idea of what you can expect to see:
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This is the SHRINE OF THE HOLY TORTILLA in Hidalgo, TX. Can you see the face of Jesus? |
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This is the SHRINE OF THE HOLY CAMARO in Elsa, TX. Can you see the Virgin Mary? |  |
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This is the MADONNA TREE in Brownsville, TX. Can you see the Virgin Mary? |  |
BEHIND THE SCENES: The idea for this film came about in October of 1992, when filmmakers Michael Van Wagenen (that's me) and Kels Goodman drove down to southern Texas to shoot some footage of votive offerings at the Shrine of the Holy Tortilla. In trying to locate the shrine we came across several other interesting places where the Virgin Mary was reported to have appeared. A year later, my wife Monica Delgado proposed that she raise the money to make a film about these unusual shrines. After a few months Monica had raised the basic money needed to get there and back. Kels was from southern Texas so we had a place to stay, now all we needed was the equipment. Kels took out a loan and bought an old CP-16 motion picture camera (the kind used for filming the news before video cameras). Assuming that all was fine with the camera, Kels cleaned it up a bit and packed it for the trip. We brought along Trent Black as sound mixer and borrowed an old Nagra sound recorder for the job. Our only light was a car head light welded to a stand. We hopped in a rented van and made the two day drive from Utah to southern Texas. For the first week Monica and I researched the shrines. We could only afford to purchase 10 rolls of 16mm film (at a discount it still cost $900) which would last around 2 hours total. We had to make every interview count. We isolated the people we needed to interview and figured a specific question or two we could ask. During this time Kels and Trent visited family and friends (both were Texan). On the night before we began principle photography Kels noticed a strange noise from inside the camera. He opened it up to find that a crucial belt used for synchronizing the camera had been replaced with dental floss. I could have vomited right there. Without that belt it is impossible to synchronize the sound with the picture. The next morning we called around the country and drove all over southern Texas trying to come up with a solution. Finally one block from the Madonna Tree in Brownsville we found a record player belt that basically fit. We seemed to be in business. Filming these shrines was fascinating. For many outsiders, ourselves included, the subject matter seems a little funny at first. After meeting and interviewing these people we realized that something was happening that was changing these people's lives. That "something" was faith. Suddenly, we found ourselves taking this all very serious. Our approach to the film developed and evolved right there. After 3 weeks in Texas we drove home exhausted and flat broke. We had our film sent to a lab on credit and waited to see how the footage looked. Monica and I went to the lab to view the dailies. We almost died - a full one third of the footage was ruined because of focus problems. The lens was bad and affected every shot to some degree. That left us with about 90 minutes of footage to cut together a 30 minute movie. We then loaded up the footage with the sound tapes and found out the camera was out of synch (that should have been no surprise). I wanted to cry. Monica didn't have enough experience with film yet to realize how bad our situation was. Her solution - "just fix it." Kels heard about the footage and hid from us for two months. By the time he showed up at our doorstep again, all was forgiven. Editing was a nightmare. We had to splice in blank pieces of sound every second or two in order to keep the picture and sound synchronised. This had to be done by hand and took hundreds of hours. After several months Monica and I emerged from editing. We would watch cuts of the film and hang our heads in frustration. Every flaw was so obvious - every weakness apparent. Still, we had invested all our money and the better part of the year into the film. When the final film print came back from the lab we held a screening for our friends. Monica and I almost couldn't sit through the premiere. When the lights came up, our friends rushed forward with congratulations. We were shocked, our friends would tell us if it sucked, but they really seemed to like it. Encouraged, we began submitting it to film festivals. To our surprise it began to be invited to screenings and even won some national awards. The highlight was traveling with the film to New York City to screen it to a standing room only crowd at the American Museum of Natural History. We even got to sit with Emilio Delgado - the guy who plays "Luis" on Sesame Street. Monica spotted him waiting in line (she's always claimed he was her first Latino role model on TV) and pulled him out and had him sit in between us in the theater. He offered to let us sit together, but we were both pretty excited and wanted to share him. A film distribution deal followed and it continues to screen all over North America. In the end, the "Miracle" of Mundo Milagroso was that it ever happened at all. I guess it goes to show you that people will forgive technical problems if you tell a good, sincere story.
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The Mundo Crew: (left to right)
Trent "Clyde" Black - Sound Kels Goodman - Camera Monica Delgado - Director Michael Van Wagenen - Producer |
In Memory of Paulita Rivera The kind woman who made the Holy Tortilla We miss you - Texas misses you |
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