Jessica Vecchione didn't expect to win, so she didn't dress up for the awards ceremony, she said Friday.
Vecchione was wrong _ her documentary about a Hispanic immigrant community in rural Delaware County was honored at the Orlando Hispanic Film Festival in Orlando, Fla., on Sept. 19.
"Bienvenidos a Fleischmanns _ An Immigrant Community in Rural America," which premiered at the La Cabana Restaurant in Fleischmanns in April, won the Special Jury Award for Documentary.
The film was also an official selection of the Black Earth Film Festival in Galesburg, Ill., the same weekend.
"It's such a thrill to have your work appreciated," Vecchione, of Hamden, said. "But I was embarrassed to be dressed in jeans and a jacket when I went up to accept the award _ everyone else looked so elegant."
Vecchione's film is an intimate portrait of the Hispanic immigrant population, which represents more than 30 percent of the full-time residents in Fleischmanns. The film looks at the challenges faced by these families in their work, education and assimilation into rural American culture.
Vecchione said she has always been interested in Hispanic culture and is shooting a documentary about Hispanic migrant farm workers in the Finger Lakes region.
Vecchione said she became acquainted with migrant workers when she worked and lived with them while picking organic lettuce in Orange County in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
After traveling to Mexico on multiple occasions and living in the Western states, Vecchione said she moved to Delaware County and was astounded to discover the Mexican community in Fleischmanns.
Vecchione's foray into videography began when she went back to school at the State University College at Oneonta to finish a Spanish degree she started 30 years ago.
She said she became interested in producing and editing videos and talked her professor into letting her earn her last five credits by making the Fleischmanns film.
She said the first Mexican immigrants arrived in Fleischmanns in 1986. After 22 years, they have developed a thriving community and started several businesses.
Martin Morales, owner of the Mexican grocery store Mi Lupita and a Fleischmanns village trustee, said Vecchione's film honored the immigrant community and helped connect the people with their neighbors.
"I never thought about the community the way I see it now. To us, it is an honor that she did this. She did something great," Morales said when the film debuted.
Vecchione investigated the origins of the community and traced the movement of the first families, who migrated to Newburgh from a small town in Puebla, Mexico, in the 1970s, then to Hubble Hill in Margaretville in 1986.
Sirene Garcia, who moved to Hubble Hill when she was in second grade, plays a key role in the film. Garcia's brother owns La Cabana Restaurant on Main Street in Fleischmanns, and she was the first member of her family to attend college after graduating from Margaretville Central School in 1998.
Garcia, 29, attended Keuka College and is a program coordinator at the Finger Lakes Migrant Health Care Project.
Garcia said convincing her family she wanted to go to college was a struggle because "sometimes parents put boundaries on their children. College was something they believed we couldn't reach, but that has changed now."
Margaretville Central School Superintendent Tony Albanese said he thinks Vecchione's film was well-done and respectfully deals with the problems faced by the immigrants.
"It really surprised me how this video has impacted the community," Albanese said Friday. "The migrant community has been embraced by the community and the school, and it has offered us a great opportunity to blend cultures and values. It's a situation that is unique in Delaware County."
The movie trailer can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_hzTweJ5L8.
Jessica's production company, VeccVideography.com, specializes in videos for local businesses and events.
Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.
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