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Making a Movie in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas

August 11, 2020 by Jillian Leave a Comment

making a movie in the rio grande valley of south texas
rio grande valley
rio grande valley
harlingen, texas

I moved to the Rio Grande Valley of South in Texas in late 2016 because there was just something magical about it and I knew I wanted to film a movie there. I had a dramatic thriller in mind, with a strong female lead and tight-knit plot full of unexpected twists and turns…

Well, I did end up filming a movie in the RGV, but it was nothing like what I originally planned. From 2017-2019, I worked tirelessly on my movie, which ended up being a documentary project on the history of the region. The seed was first planted when a friend who grew up there clued me into the little-known Jewish history of the Valley. He suggested I look into it for myself and the deeper I looked, the more I found.

Thus began a long but rewarding journey that ended with a feature length documentary I directed called Remember My Soul. The film investigates how the Sephardic Jewish diaspora in 1492 set forth the practice of crypto-Judaism in colonial Mexico, and how these invisible Jewish families settled the Rio Grande Valley and contributed to traditions of borderlands culture. In this post, I share how the project came together, what it was like filming in the Valley, and the many photos I took during filming that reveal the marvelous landscapes there.

engleman gardens
When I took over as the primary camera operator for my documentary, the very first footage I filmed was B-roll of this field in my rural neighborhood in Edcouch. Eventually this natural landscape was destroyed for agricultural farming.
citrus theater edinburg tx
The historic Citrus Theatre in Edinburg.
sugar cane in south texas
Sugar cane field near Edcouch.
sugar cane field
The sugar cane fields stretch for as far as the eye can see.
sugar cane rio grande valley
Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers near Edcouch

Before I start, and in case you are interested, here are a few links to media articles about my film, the official IMDB page, and a link to purchase the dvd. There are more article links at the end of this post.

  • How History Defines Us from Lone Star Parity Project
  • UTRGV student-made documentary now registered with the Library of Congress from The Newsroom at UTRGV
  • Remember My Soul IMDB page
  • Where to purchase Remember My Soul dvd

When I moved to the Valley, I decided to return to school and finish getting my bachelor’s degree, which I had put on pause about ten years earlier. That first semester back, I took Intro to Mexican American Literature. One of the assignments for the course was to create a media project that explored our personal connection to the Rio Grande Valley. For me this was a head-scratcher because unlike the other students in my class, I did not grow up in the Valley and had just moved there. So I decided to connect the Jewish history of the Valley to my own Jewish background.

The project I submitted for my Intro to Mexican American Studies course.

My professor loved the project so much, and I enjoyed making it so much, that it gave me the idea to expand the project into a short documentary. I spent the next few months doing research on the history of Jewish people in the region and discovering that many of the Jews that sought asylum in Mexico from the Inquisition were crypto-Jews, acting Catholic on the outside but secretly practicing the Jewish faith inside their homes. This was so fascinating to me and I knew it needed to be included in my documentary.

Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle
Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, which is featured at the beginning of the documentary.
Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle
Jugs of holy water from the fountain in front of the chapel at the Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle.
flea market alamo tx
The flea market in Alamo where I got B-roll and interviewed people to see how much locals know about the Jewish religion.
flea market alamo tx
Boot shop at the flea market in Alamo.
palm trees

I began looking into grants that would be able provide some financial assistance to produce the film. I ended up getting a small grant from the Texas Jewish Historical Society and one from my school, the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, called the Engaged Scholar for Creative Works. My professor had connected me to another one of her students who was a film maker and we began working together on pre-production. We even took the bus across the border to Monterrey, Mexico, which has a large Jewish population and rich Jewish history, to meet with some people who could help out with research. I soon realized that with the extensive information and history I was finding, a short documentary would not be enough.

mission texas
Volunteers at a festival in Mission.
rio grande valley
Food vendor surrounded by agua frescas in Mission.
our lady of guadalupe catholic church mission tx
Looking out from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Mission.
la lomita chapel
The historic La Lomita Chapel located right next to the Rio Grande River that separates Texas from Mexico. Because of it’s close proximity to the border, there is usually a Border Patrol officer parked on the road by the entrance.
la lomita chapel
Inside La Lomita Chapel in Mission.
la lomita chapel
Statue outside of La Lomita Chapel.
mission tx
The canal across the street from La Lomita Chapel.
villa queen of peace mission tx
In the distance on the right are the remains of another church, Villa Queen of Peace, near La Lomita Chapel. I tried to drive over to it but could not figure out how to access it.

Through my new student-producer, we had brought a film student onboard who had experience doing camera work to be our cinematographer. On a hot summer day we went out and commenced our first official day of filming, getting b-roll around the Valley. However, both my producer and camera operator dropped out of the project soon after because they had too much on their plates already. Since I had pretty good camera experience myself, I decided to take on the camera and sound duties, and began shooting b-roll and interviews on my Nikon (which I had only used for still photography up to that point).

gloria anzaldua
During my first day as my own cinematographer, my last stop was the Valle De La Paz Cemetery in Hargill, which was the next town over from where I lived. Aside from getting b-roll, it gave me the chance to see the grave of Chicana author/poet/activist Gloria Anzaldua, whose family is from Hargill.
  • valle de la paz cemetery
  • aloe vera
  • cross
  • cow
  • cemetery
  • offering
hargill tx
Turns out I was not alone in this cemetery. There was a stray dog living there. I went back to feed her for a few days before being able to gain her trust enough to leash her up and take her home. I fostered her for 2 years before she found a great home. Definitely not what I expected to happen when I went to the cemetery to film!
la villa tx
Cotton gin in La Villa
  • cotton field texas
  • cotton
Cotton field near Hargill. The Rio Grande Valley is full of cotton fields. There were several in my neighborhood.
museum of south texas history
Pioneer and Ranching Crafts Day at the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg. Once the documentary was completed, I screened it to a full audience at the museum.

I got mostly positive reactions from people while filming my documentary. There were a lot of people interested in the film, willing to speak to me during my research process and refer me to other people they knew. People let me come up and ask them questions on camera or get b-roll footage of them. Behind the scenes, I felt like some of the machismo culture you see in the region also applies to the film world there. There are not many female film makers in the RGV, and most of the male film makers I reached out to for advice ignored me or didn’t want to help. My (male) screenwriting professor at school bluntly told me he didn’t think I could complete my film!

Luckily, there was another male professor in the film school that was extremely helpful and even let me rent out sound equipment for free. Additionally, I met another local film maker named Ronnie Garza who turned out to be an invaluable mentor to me and made the final edit of my film about 50x better than what it originally was thanks to his feedback. He continues to be a great mentor and friend to this day as I navigate through the world of self-distribution and beyond.

santa ana national wildlife refuge
Suspension bridge at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo
tree
trees
rio grande river
Rio Grande River at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
wildlife refuge
santa ana national wildlife refuge
The wildlife refuge is one of my favorite places in the Valley. It’s incredibly beautiful. One time, me and a fellow hiker I met there got stuck in a rainstorm out on the trail and we had to slog back in the mud and it got dark and the refuge closed and we thought we were locked in! Another time, border patrol had immigrants who had crossed the border on the refuge property handcuffed in front of the visitor’s center. Interesting times at the wildlife refuge!

Generally speaking, I would say the Valley is quite welcoming to film makers. It’s not like shooting in Austin, where I have shot short films in the past, and people would get annoyed or suspicious if they saw me or my crew filming on the streets or in public places. I think people in the Valley are excited when someone wants to highlight the region, especially if it’s in a positive light, and not the typical gang or drug related movies that you see taking place on the border. Overall, I had an awesome experience filming in the Valley and hope to do it again.

charro days
Charro Days parade in Brownsville
charro days
Charros Days annually celebrates the friendship between Brownsville and it’s border city of Matamoros, Mexico.
southwest key la esperanza
A mural on the Southwest Key La Esperanza building in Brownsville.
brownsville tx
I noticed these murals as I was walking back to my car from the Charro Days parade. When a man saw me filming them, he stopped to fondly tell me about the building – a non-profit that shelters immigrant children – and his own personal connection to it.
utrgv brownsville
A resaca in Brownsville, and beyond that, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville campus.
alison wilson hope park
Alison Wilson Hope Park in Brownsville
brownsville texas
Resaca at the Brownsville City Cemetery and one of the last scenes in my film.
mcallen texas
McAllen Performing Arts Center
  • hinovations art gallery
  • hinovations art gallery
  • hinovations arts gallery
Hinovations Art Gallery in McAllen

Another student had signed on to edit the project but he quit fairly early in the process as well (note to self: don’t hire students), which left me to edit, and I had very little experience doing so. Lucky for me, I love editing and I picked it up quickly. Editing was the most consuming part of the entire film process. I would sit in front of my laptop all day long, or sometimes all night long, going through each and every second of the film. But I loved it. The first draft was over two and a half hours! It took a lot of work to cut it down to just under ninety minutes.

But it was all worth it. The documentary got a decent amount of attention upon completion, especially after it was added to the Library of Congress. I was in Washington DC in the summer of 2019 for a scholarship I received to attend a women’s leadership conference. While there, I organized to meet with the staff at the Library of Congress to hand deliver a dvd of my film, which was being added to the Jewish Collection there. I got a private tour of the Library and it’s adjoining building, including the media room where people would be able to watch my documentary. It was an amazing experience!

  • cabbage field
Cabbage Field next to the entrance of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
matanza of 1915
Historical marker for La Matanza, located on I-69 on the way to Brownsville.
the alamo
  • the alamo
  • the alamo
  • the alamo
The Alamo allowed me to get footage on the grounds to include in my documentary.
border wall
Border wall in Brownsville

I also received an official letter of congratulations from my former representative in the RGV, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, which was a nice surprise. Remember My Soul screened at the Docs Without Borders Film Festival and was a semi-finalist at the Near Nazareth Festival in Israel. Locally, it screened at the San Antonio Film Festival, which I got to attend, and later at the Cine Sol Festival in the RGV. The best screening, however, was at the Museum of South Texas History. The audience had a great response to the film and that led to their gift shop stocking dvds. There was supposed to be a screening at the McAllen Public Library, but the pandemic delayed that and I hope to reschedule in the future, along with more screenings throughout Texas. Finally, the film is now located in the library of several Texas universities.

  • Library of Congress Catalog for Remember My Soul
  • The Monitor Newspaper
  • Valley Central
  • Valley Morning Star
  • Local filmmakers navigating through pandemic effects from The Monitor

My main goal for Remember My Soul is to be true to the people who call the Valley home, both past and present. I wanted to capture the spirit of the region and hopefully bring some little-known knowledge to the surface, to help people appreciate their roots and the idea that we are all related regardless of religion and other characteristics that can divide people. I learned so much from the experience of making this documentary, despite the many hurdles I had to overcome, and I got to considerably expand my skills as a film maker. It has led me to so many interesting people and places and opportunities, and if I had to do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat.

palm tree lined highway
Palm tree lined highway in front of Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
follow your dreams
Art in San Antonio
yaqui animal rescue
Donkey at Yaqui Animal Rescue

Please feel free to email me with any questions about Remember My Soul, my experience filming, or documentary film making.

Jillian 💙

Related posts on Compassionate Women:

  1. La Sal del Rey & Raymondville, Texas
  2. Exploring the Rio Grande Valley
  3. Forgotten Small Towns in South Texas

Filed Under: Bits & Pieces, Tidbits, Travel Tagged With: blog, cinesol festival, compassionate women, crypto jews, documentary, femaledirector, femalefilmmaker, jewish people rio grande valley, jewish roots, jillian glantz, library of congress, rio grande valley, south texas, south texas research, travel blog, university of texas rio grande valley, womeninfilm

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HEY THERE! I’M JILLIAN.

I live near Houston, Texas with my rescue dog Stella! I create cruelty-free recipes that are delicious, to demonstrate that it's easy to follow a plant-based lifestyle. Not only are the health and beauty benefits noticeable, but it creates a more sustainable planet and keeps our animal friends safe & happy. In our spare time, Stella and I also love watching movies, reading, snuggling, and taking long walks! LEARN MORE…

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remember my soul

Feature-length documentary that uncovers the Jewish history of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and the customs & traditions the Jewish people there have contributed to.

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