Student Documentary Spotlights Health Educators in New Brunswick

A documentary made by student filmmakers at Rutgers under the guidance of an Academy Award-winning educator and an activist documentarian is having its premiere public screening in downtown New Brunswick. 
 
Promotora, a 14-minute film focused on Mexican American women who travel around New Brunswick and serve as educators about health care resources available to their communities, is one of three short films that will be screened during “Mexican/American: The Search for Health and Happiness.”  

The event – set from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Ave. – is sponsored by the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the Mexican Consulate in New Brunswick and Johnson & Johnson. Admission is free, but tickets are required. 

Promotora, which features promotora Teresa Vivar as well as mother-and-daughter promotoras Martha and Kareli Barragan, was filmed by 10 students from the Documentary Film Lab, housed within the Rutgers Filmmaking Center at Mason Gross.  

In the documentary, Martha Barragan says in Spanish, “I didn’t know I could go to a clinic. I didn’t know I could go to a hospital. I was always with that fear that they will not treat me. Or that they would ask for my documentation.” The promotoras taught her otherwise.

One student, Ivanna Guerrero, started shooting for the film as an undergraduate in 2021 and stayed on as an assistant editor after she graduated. The West New York, N.J., resident, who earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in digital filmmaking from Rutgers–New Brunswick in 2022, is a video editor for the MLB Network. 

Thomas F. Lennon, a producer of the film and the director of the Documentary Film Lab, oversaw the project (which received funding from Johnson & Johnson) along with documentarian and photojournalist Dorie Hagler. Lennon, who won an Oscar in 2007 for The Blood of Yingzhou District in the documentary short subject category and has four Academy nominations, is an assistant professor at Mason Gross.  

Lennon and Guerrero discuss the documentary. 

What inspired you and your students to film Promotora?

Lennon: I first heard about promotoras in 2020. I’d never heard the term, and that was part of what was intriguing. Who were these community health workers? Where does this tradition come from? I picked the subject, but the students in the class were eager – they were into it. 

Ivanna, what drew you to the project? 

Guerrero: Love. The love and care that these women have for their community is just so amazing to see and I wanted to be a part of bringing this to light. The one thing I love about us Latinos is we will do anything for our family, our community. I personally would do anything for the people I love. The promotoras have helped Latinos for years, and they did it for nothing but the joy of seeing their community healthy. These women have such big hearts and I’m happy this film gets to show everyone that.

Why were the women featured in the film important to document? 

Lennon: The term “promotora,” you notice, ends with an “A” – the tradition is rooted in Mexican and Latin American life – and it’s carried out by women. The full term is “Promotora de Salud,” a promoter of health. In the U.S., you’d call it community health work, but the Spanish term has more poetry to it. There’s a large Mexican population in New Brunswick, many from Oaxaca, and they imported the promotora tradition to this city. 

As you’ll see in the film, the role they play in the health system is vital – and the COVID crisis really demonstrated that. 

What do you hope viewers take away from Promotora? 

Guerrero: Their kindness. I hope viewers can watch Promotora and take away the hospitality and big-heartedness that these women have and instill them in their everyday lives. A lot of people nowadays tend to only care about themselves and it’s sad. We should all learn from these women and take care of our neighbors, our family, help someone in need, lend a helping hand to a stranger, and just be nice and kind. 

What do you enjoy about making documentaries with Rutgers students? What do they bring to the table? 

Lennon: My class is a strange hybrid. It’s partly a normal class, with lectures and assignments, but students also get pulled into real-world projects where they’re assigned roles – cinematography, sound recording, associate producing, assistant editing – the kinds of tasks they might be hired to do once they graduate.

We’re kind of a bridge between the school and the outside world, and the work can get really pressured, but that pressure often brings out the best in these students. I may be biting my nails, but they seem to love the pressure. 

Why did you join the Documentary Film Lab? How was your experience?

Guerrero: There is nothing more real and eye-opening than actively being involved in something you are learning about. Seeing real people and hearing their stories is something that personally connects with me. That’s how I learn better, which is what drew me to the documentary lab. 

Students who are interested in the Documentary Film Lab: What opportunities await them? 

Lennon: We’ve got all kinds of projects – more than we can juggle. We’re just finishing a film about the Rutgers Marine Field Station, down in Tuckerton, N.J., along the coast – one of the most beautiful, most cinematic landscapes I’ve ever worked in. We got 20 students or more, at one time or another, filming there – an incredible opportunity.  

All told, the lab is doing three films about sea level rise and climate change along the New Jersey coast. There’s an incredible story percolating with the Oceanography Department – a glider they’re going to launch and try to circumnavigate the globe with, using only the ocean currents as their engine. My plan is for my students to be filming that launch soon – some of them up to their waists in water, with waterproof cameras. 

What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers and video editors? 

Guerrero: Just be you. Write what you want to write. Edit projects that you feel connected to or will honestly have fun editing. Put yourself and your personality in every project that you do and just keep pushing forward.  

Life is going to hit you, of course. Sometimes you’re going to do a job you don’t want to do. Life happens. But people make it in film and why can’t that someone be you, too? If you keep at it and you’re passionate and you keep creating, it’ll happen for you one day. Please don’t give up. I always remind myself of this, too.