Rutgers-Camden Filmmaker’s Documentary Shown during Smithsonian Exhibit

CAMDEN – A film on the fatal crash of Mexican pilot Emilio Carranza in the Pine Barrens and the American Legion Post in South Jersey who keeps his memory alive has been shown during the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition “Our Journeys/Our Stories: Portraits of Latino Achievement” at the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark.

Barrington resident Robert Emmons, associate director of the Honors College at Rutgers University’s Camden campus, where he also teaches courses on filmmaking, is the film’s creator.

Titled “Goodwill,” the film was shown on Thursday, Jan. 17, at the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark.

“Goodwill” details the life of Carranza, known as “the Lindbergh of Mexico.” Carranza’s plane crashed in 1928, while leaving New York for Mexico City on a goodwill flight the pilot was making as a return gesture to Charles Lindbergh. Members of the Mount Holly American Legion Post 11 recovered Carranza’s body, and have honored him each year since with an elaborate memorial service at the crash site. While Carranza was known the world over at the time of his death, today he is nearly forgotten in his homeland.

Emmons premiered “Goodwill” at Rutgers-Camden in July 2007. Since then he has been asked to enter the film in the Orlando Hispanic Film Festival and to write the entry on Emilio Carranza for the Encyclopedia of Latino and Latina History.

“My continued goal is to keep Carranza’s goodwill mission going. I feel my film plays a small part in extending his mission,” says Emmons.

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