A transformed school bus becomes a mobile site for healing at the US-Mexico border.
This documentary short (Guadalupe Maravilla’s “Mariposa Relámpago") follows the artist as he commemorates and confronts his journey to the United States as an unaccompanied, undocumented minor fleeing civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s.
Learn more about Guadalupe Maravilla: art21.org/guadalupemaravilla

Explore other Art21 films in the "New York Close Up" series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL70298B8E028D372C

#Art21 #ContemporaryArt #GuadalupeMaravilla #ArtDocumentary #Filmmaking #ArtistProfile #ArtInspiration #CreativeProcess #NewYorkCloseUp #ArtistFilm

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CREDITS
Director & Producer: César Martínez Barba
Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski
Series Producer: Nick Ravich
Editors: Lorena Alvarado, César Martínez Barba
Cinematography: Pete Quandt
Additional Photography: Joseph Cashiola, Sophia Feuer, Chris Goldstein
Sound: César Martínez Barba, Fivel Rothberg
Associate Producer: Andrea Chung
Assistant Curator: Jurrell Lewis
Color Correction: Shanna Maurizi
Soung-Design & Mix: Micah Garrido
Design & Graphics: Chips
Music: Micah Garrido
Artwork & Archival Media courtesy: Guadalupe Maravilla
Thanks: Ballroom Marfa, Billy Dufala, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Daniel Marcellus Givens, Miralva Melo Swaby, Mariana Parisca, Hillary Ramos, Recycled Artist in Residency, Irlanda Vargas

© Art21, Inc. 2025. All rights reserved.

New York Close Up is made possible with support from Deborah Beckmann and Jacob Kotzubei, Jessica and Natan Bibliowicz, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Henry Nias Foundation, and individual contributors.

TRANSLATIONS
Translated subtitles are generously contributed by our volunteer translation community. Visit our translation team at Amara for the full list of contributors.