Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery

Filmmaker Walter Dominguez finds himself at a crossroads in his life, wondering how to find a new path and regain his sense of purpose. A mysterious photograph connected to his late beloved Mexican-born grandfather Emilio, a kindly and saintly minister who influenced Walter’s life, leads Walter to embark on a quest to unearth answers to enigmas and mysteries surrounding Emilio’s early life. But what Walter discovers is a dark side of his grandfather’s life that he had no inkling existed, and it turns his perceptions about his grandfather upside down. He learns Emilio was an anarchist revolutionary, befriended and mentored by a famous Mexican revolutionary named Praxedis G. Guerrero. And that Emilio and Praxedis together were involved in conspiratorial, even violent activities based from the United States against the dictator of Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, activities that helped precipitate the cataclysmic ten year Mexican Revolution. The documentary traces Walter’s odyssey as he puts the pieces of the puzzle together, the puzzle of how conditions in Emilio’s tragic early life, and in Mexico as a whole, brought him together with Praxedis and motivated their fiery opposition to Díaz; and of how Emilio transformed from a radical anarchist into a Methodist minister, dedicated to changing human conditions through peaceful, non-violent means. Traveling throughout the U.S. and Mexico, interviewing family elders and American and Mexican historians, Walter unearths startling historical information, and places and people connected to Emilio’s early life. Eventually, he even locates Emilio’s long-lost relatives in a mountain village in Mexico. All this provides the missing pieces of information to make sense of Emilio’s motives and his life’s mission. And Walter himself changes. In the end, having discovered how his grandfather found meaning and redemption for himself, Walter finds renewal of his life and a vision for the future.

Awards: Accolade Competition Award - Feature Documentary; The Indie Fest Award - Feature Documentary and Editing.