Rutgers-Camden Filmmaker’s Documentary Honored during Garden State Film Festival

Barrington resident Robert Emmons, associate director of the Honors College at Rutgers University—Camden, where he also teaches courses on filmmaking, is the film’s creator. Cherry Hill resident Peter Gambino, a senior English major at Rutgers-Camden, served as the film’s assistant editor. Stephen McMaster, program coordinator at the Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts, developed the film’s animation sequences. 

Titled “Goodwill,” the film 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.

“It is quite an honor to win,” says Emmons, noting that the festival also included a documentary titled “4Chosen,” narrated by Montel Williams and being made into a feature film starring Lawrence Fishburne, as well as the Oscar-winning documentary short “Freeheld.”

Emmons premiered “Goodwill” at Rutgers-Camden in July 2007. Since then, he has been invited 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.

Founded in 2002, the Garden State Film Festival, which took place in Asbury Park April 3-6, brings independent film screenings, hands-on film workshops, and professional panel discussions to New Jersey. 

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