Michael Naranjo, a blind man who has the use of only one hand, has fulfilled his dream despite being given every reason not to: He’s a sculptor, carving every curve, protrusion and feature of his art through memory and touch.
He is also the subject of a documentary – produced by his daughter and showing on Nov. 8 at the Coronado Island Film Festival. More than a decade after filming first began, Jenna Naranjo Winters will screen the story of her father, an indigenous Vietnam War veteran who became an artist, and her mother Laurie, the person in lockstep with him for the past half century.
The film, “Dream Touch Believe,” is Naranjo Winter’s way of preserving her parent’s lives and showing that dreams can be accomplished – because she saw it firsthand.
The story is primarily about my dad and his sculptures. However, I would say that it’s just as much about my mom, too. Because she did play such a huge role in his success and their desire and ability to chase the most impossible dreams successfully.
Documentary filmmaker Jenna Naranjo Winters
“The story is primarily about my dad and his sculptures. However, I would say that it’s just as much about my mom, too,” Naranjo Winters told The Coronado News. “Because she did play such a huge role in his success and their desire and ability to chase the most impossible dreams successfully.”
Raised in New Mexico and part of the Tewa Tribe, Naranjo began sculpting following his disability. His work quickly earned international recognition, taking him around the world to present sculptures to figures like Pope John Paul II and Richard Nixon.
Naranjo was drafted into the Army at 22. While serving in Vietnam, a grenade attack left him blinded and with a severely injured hand. He underwent enucleation surgery, meaning both of his eyeballs were taken out. He doesn’t see blurry figures or shreds of light; he sees nothing.
While recovering in the hospital, he asked for clay – a material familiar from a childhood spent around his mother, a ceramic artist. As he molded it in his hands, he felt a sense of purpose.
“I knew then what I was going to do with my life, no second thoughts about it,” Naranjo said.
Since then, his sculptures have reached the Vatican and the White House, with pieces ranging from a lighthearted depiction of two bears on a picnic to the biblical story of Jacob wrestling an angel.
Naranjo describes his life as “ecstasy” and the life he always wanted. There’s nothing he would trade to see again.
What can anyone say other than we lived it, and we enjoyed it, and here we are now. It feels good.
Michael Naranjo
“What can anyone say other than we lived it, and we enjoyed it, and here we are now. It feels good,” Naranjo said.
When she watched the film, Laurie said she simply felt fortunate. “Seeing your whole life pass before you, we did all this stuff,” Laurie said. “How did we get here? Where did the time go?
“Jenna showed us.”
Naranjo Winters said she wanted this film to be about her parents’ bond, not just her dad.
“It might be a film about overcoming life’s challenges or art or Vietnam, but at the end of the day, this is truly a love story about two people, about their love for their dreams,” Naranjo Winters said.
Now, more than ever, she added, the world needs stories that inspire and encourage.
“There are so many horrible things happening, but there has to be a way and a place that we can still find hope in humanity.”
Naranjo Winters said she spent 20 years working in true crime television before she left to pursue her documentary.
“Those stories became incredibly depressing and I felt this intense urge to share a story that would bring light and hope to people,” Naranjo Winters explained. But she said she learned a lot and was able to bring her experience to a film of her own.
For over a decade, she immersed herself in her father’s history – spending endless hours on the phone with him and combing through wartime archives, radio interviews and recordings of his speeches to veterans and students.
She said that when she was making the documentary, she was thinking about how she would show her daughter that anything is possible.
Naranjo Winters said she wanted to give up on the film hundreds of times, but knew she had to persevere.
“I had to finish so that someday – when she finds her own dream – she knows that she can do it too. Just as they did, just as I did.”
