Santeros: Saintmakers

Duration: 33

Year Published: 1986

Creator: Telles Productions

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Description: Documents the work of the santeros, Hispanic wood sculptors who continue the 300-year-old traditions of the earliest "saintmakers." Focuses on five artisans in New Mexico to capture the quiet pace, religious devotion, and commitment to their craft that have characterized santeros throughout history. They draw on many sources of inspiration for a particular carving from the life of the saint to events in the Church calendar. The artists regularly credit the environment as a major influence on their art, a point underscored repeatedly through spectcular shots of the New Mexico landscape. Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk Arts Division, by the New Mexico Arts Division, and by the Public Service Company of New Mexico.