Making Virtual a Reality
“This must be heaven,” says Shoeless Joe Jackson. “No. It’s Iowa,” writes W.P. Kinsella, in his 1982 novel, Shoeless Joe.
2020 and the Covid-19 Pandemic has blurred the line between virtual and reality in the video production business. Much of my business involves generating content for or actually recording large fundraising galas for various non-profit organizations, businesses and institutions.

Covid-19 changed all that and likely changed it forever. Last spring I watched client after client, cancel their events and fundraising galas and banquets. But then, a funny thing happened. Business began to trickle back in as clients pivoted to virtual gatherings.

An so began a busy summer and fall producing and assembling virtual events for some amazing non-profit organizations like Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, Lawyers Committee for Better Housing, the Northern Illinois District of the United Methodist Church, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the JCFS Therapeutic School, Lutheran Life Communities, Augsburg University and the Chicago Bible Society.

Each of these organizations needed to move forward with annual fundraising drives and they needed content, properly recorded, edited and crafted into compelling narratives. In my world we call that a TV show and producing those, is right in my wheelhouse.

The big difference is the advent of Zoom and other platforms giving us the ability to safely record individuals from their homes or offices. We also did some safe, socially distanced recording sessions with individuals by creating sets and scheduling individuals to be recorded one at a time. These recordings were then edited together into virtual events.

2020 was also filled with documentary production, including several new documentaries. The York Center Coop is the story of a fair-housing cooperative in my hometown, Lombard, Illinois. This project with the Lombard Historical Society is still in production and will complete a trifecta of historical documentaries that span the history of our community from the arrival of European Americans through present day.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in American commissioned me to create a documentary about two of their missionaries, Mark and Linda Jacobson. The Jacobsons spent most of their careers in Tanzania working to develop healthcare through a missiology known as “Accompaniment.”

Shekinah Chapel is an amazing African American congregation on Chicago’s far south side. They asked me to produce a documentary in celebration of their 25th anniversary. Shekinah Chapel recounts the story of a small group of African American men and women who dedicated themselves to creatively addressing the needs of children in their community amid the gang and drug conflicts of the 1990’s. The result was the birth of a surprising new community of faith that continues to flourish today.

Finally, our Save Your Memories digital transfer service continues to grow. This year we digitized thousands of hours of VHS, Hi-8, Beta-cam, 8mm and 16mm film, 35mm slides and various audio recordings. It’s fun to work with the legacy formats that once were the primary tools of our industry.

To paraphrase W.P. Kinsella, my 2020 production calendar was erased like a blackboard, only to be rebuilt. Thanks to all my faithful clients who do such amazing work, healing the sick, comforting the suffering and defending the defenseless, doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly.

Here’s looking to a bright future in 2021 with new opportunities, challenges and adventures.

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The Spring and summer 2015 calendar is filling up with travel and production.

April finds me at Chicago’s McCormick Place working with RFID in Healthcare Consortium at Chicago’s McCormick Place a large health IT industry event.

Then it’s off to Honduras for a week with PREDISAN, a faith-based non-profit that provides physical, spiritual, social, economic and environmental healthcare to those in poverty.

Back in Chicago I’ll be recording footage for a new Greater Chicago Broadcast documentary to air on ABC7 Chicago in partnership with the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. Selma at 50 is a conference being held at Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park. The event features the Rev. Jessie Jackson, author Michelle Alexander and many others.

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois has asked me to help them develop stories about their important work caring for seniors, children in foster care, affordable housing and assistance with behavioral health.

Then, it’s off to Sweden to record footage for a new documentary on the history of Pietsim. I’ll be working with University of Illinois scholar Dr. Mark Safestrom on this project. Thanks to all of you who supported our Indigogo campaign to raise funds for this project!

In July I’ll join PBS travel guru Rick Steves and his team in Germany. Rick asked me to help shoot a new, 1 hour PBS documentary about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church in 1517. It’s been 500 years, hence the new documentary.

One note looking back, a classical Indian music video I recorded and edited for Indian Raga Labs has gone rather viral on Facebook. Last time I checked it was over 18,000 views!

Thanks to all my clients, supporters, friends and family who make this vocational call continually meaningful.

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With all the hubbub surrounding the recent trend toward normalizing relations with Cuba, I thought I would repost this March, 2011 video I recorded in Matanza, Cuba. My friend Tony Fernandez is the bass player in this wonderful string quintet. D`Cámara Opus 5 is popular in Cuba and has toured in the United States, Europe and around the Caribbean. Tony asked me to record them during my visit. Here they perform Johann Strauss, Roses from the South.

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Anna Hauge was a Navy nurse on board the USS Tranquility, the hospital ship that rescued the survivors of the USS Indianapolis disaster in August, 1945. Anna is one of those unsung heroes who lived through an epic chapter in American history.

Nick Zanini served in Europe during World War II, crossing the Atlantic on the RMS Queen Mary, landing at Normandy and fighting his way across France and through the Battle of the Bulge.

James Homme is a retired Lutheran (ELCA) pastor. During the Korean War, Jim found himself occupying a forward observation post along the 38th parallel. “In the daytime it was a lark,” Jim relates. “But at night, it was terrifying.” In the video we see how Jim found comfort in the 27th Psalm.

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Does Christian unity matter to you? Happy to be working with John H. Armstrong and the ACT3 Network. Here is a new video I produced for and with John, describing his vision of Missional Ecumenism and Christian Unity. What John has to say, might surprise you!

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Evan Shields, a reporter for the West Chicago Suburban Life filed this story on “Divided Families, Responding with Faith” a 1-hour documentary I shot and edited for the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. Coincidentally, I began my career back in the late 1970’s at the West Chicago Press! The program aired on WTTW, Channel 11, PBS, Chicago in October. You may view the full program at csec.org

By EVAN SHIELDS – eshields@shawmedia.com
WEST CHICAGO – A local elementary school teacher and her family were recently spotlighted in a documentary focusing on immigration reform.

Amy Godoy-Guerra and her husband, Carlos, were featured in the WTTW documentary “Divided Families,” which aired Oct. 16 and can be viewed online at www.csec.org.

Amy lives in West Chicago and works at Gary Elementary School and Carlos lives in Monterrey, Mexico. Carlos was brought to the United States as a teenager using improper documentation. As a result, he has been banned from the country for life.

“It’s seven years that Carlos has been basically out of the U.S. and I have been trying to get him back,” Amy said.

Tim Frakes, who filmed the documentary, said he found Amy and Carlos after talking to an immigration attorney who knew the family. The documentary was produced by the Chicago Sunday Evening Club.

The club supports documentaries that look at issues from a faith-based perspective, rather than a political one. Government institutions and politicians didn’t want to talk to Frakes for the project.

“While this debate gets held up for political reasons on the left and right, families are divided,” Frakes said. “It’s such a hot-button issue, immigration reform, I think people are waiting to see how it shakes out [before talking about it].”

Amy and Carlos have filed a request for a waiver that would allow Carlos to live in America. They filed their original claim in February, which was denied. They filed an appeal in August, which Amy said is expected to be resolved within six to eight months.

In all, Amy and Carlos and have lived in Europe, Mexico and South Korea, but due to financial concerns, Amy has returned to the United States.

The couple have two children – Lucas, 5, and Carolina, nearly 2 – who live with Amy. She said the family’s situation is difficult, because she’s essentially a single mother a lot of the time.

“There’s just a lot of moments where I think, ‘Only if Carlos were here, it would be much simpler,'” she said.
But Amy and Carlos video chat, and Carlos has a strong digital presence in the children’s lives.
The kids aren’t fully aware of the situation, and Amy said Lucas always asks when daddy is coming to visit.
“He wants him to come and play Legos and ride bikes,” she said.

Carolina won’t say much during video chats, Amy said, but she always asks when she’s able to “talk to daddy.”

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Full Program, 56 minutes
This hour-long documentary I shot and edited for the Chicago Sunday Evening Club explores the impact of current US immigration policies on Amy and Carlos, a young family from West Chicago. The program first aired on WTTW, Channel 11, PBS, Chicago on October 16, 2014.

Because Carlos was brought to the US illegally from Mexico as a child, they encounter severe penalties and barriers as they attempt to gain his resident status. Like thousands of families in this situation, they want to do the right thing, but there seems to be no path to follow. We tell the story of their decade-long struggle, and highlight the work of faith organizations across Chicago that are working to help families like theirs stay together.

Sun Times Article: Country says ‘you can’t be a family’

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Here is a story by reporter Marlen Garcia in the Chicago Sun Times about a new documentary I shot and edited for the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. The 1 hour program aired last night on WTTW Channel 11, PBS Chicago at 9:00 p.m.

By MARLEN GARCIA October 16, 2014 5:58PM
Shortly after Amy Godoy-Guerra married husband Carlos in 2007, the couple sought to remedy Carlos’ status as an undocumented immigrant.

Carlos’ best chance to obtain legal U.S. residency required the end of his unlawful stay here, and the couple decided to ride out the wait for his green card together by living and working in other countries. Stops included Spain, Mexico and South Korea.

Seven years later, they live in separate countries. She’s back in West Chicago, and he’s in Mexico. They are still in love and resolute on being together, yet drained financially and emotionally as they continue maneuvering through a complex, outdated immigration system.

Their story is part of the documentary “Divided Families: Responding with Faith” scheduled to air Thursday night on WTTW-Ch. 11 and produced by the Chicago Sunday Evening Club. The documentary also focuses on support for immigration reform from faith-based organizations and churches, which colleague Sue Ontiveros highlighted earlier this week in a Sun-Times column.

I met Amy, 32, this week at her parents’ home, where she stays when she is not globe-trotting the world to be with Carlos. He is currently teaching English in Monterrey, Mexico.

Living together in other countries didn’t work out. Carlos wasn’t authorized to work anywhere but Mexico; Amy found temporary or low-paying jobs that didn’t sufficiently cover rent, food, college loans and the arrival of son Lucas, now 5, and daughter Carolina, 22 months.

“You feel trapped,” Amy, a dual-language elementary-school teacher in West Chicago, said of their circumstances.

Immigration-reform advocates have been vocal about the damaging effect separations have on families, including U.S.-born children and spouses. The scars are usually long-lasting. “It’s like your country is saying, ‘You can’t be a family,’” Amy said.

Even Amy’s mother seems emotionally spent. Once, in a moment of frustration, she asked Amy why she stayed involved with Carlos after finding out he was undocumented.

“Amy said, ‘Was I supposed to not love someone because of his status?’ ” her mother recalled. “It’s not been fair. To see her hopes dashed . . . ”

Carlos’ immigration case is complicated by an attempt his mother made in the 1990s to send Carlos, then a minor, into the U.S. from Mexico with a birth certificate that belonged to an American cousin.

He was caught and slapped with a lifetime ban from the U.S. for a false claim of citizenship. His mother later paid a ‘‘coyote’’ — a smuggler — to bring Carlos to the U.S., his lawyer says in the documentary, and he made a life in the Chicago area.

Advocates of immigration reform say the lifetime ban is too severe for actions by a minor. U.S. officials came around on this last year, cracking open a door for exceptions for some who broke the law as minors and giving Carlos and Amy hope.

Houston-based immigration lawyer Laurel Scott, who has appealed Carlos’ case to immigration authorities based on the revision, said by phone they must prove Carlos lacked the mental capacity to understand the consequences of his attempt. He also has a strike against him for his unlawful presence in the U.S., though he ended it voluntarily in 2007.

“At least now we have a shot,” Scott said.

The hopes of an American family are riding on it.

Email: MarlenGarcia777@gmail.com

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This hour-long documentary I shot and edited for the Chicago Sunday Evening Club explores the impact of current US immigration policies on Amy and Carlos, a young family from West Chicago. Because Carlos was brought to the US illegally from Mexico as a child, they encounter severe penalties and barriers as they attempt to gain his resident status. Like thousands of families in this situation, they want to do the right thing, but there seems to be no path to follow. We tell the story of their decade-long struggle, and highlight the work of faith organizations across Chicago that are working to help families like theirs stay together.

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