‘Mission’ documents a spiritual journey

BY BRENNA DEMPSEY

Executive Producer

“Mission” is a documentary that follows the lives of a group of friends at the Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM) hosted by the Saint Brendan Catholic Church.

The documentary was produced and directed by Diego Joaquin Campos, a junior at Tarleton State University. 

For his films, Campos goes by his first initial and middle name, D. Joaquin Campos. He produces music under his full first name, Diego Campos.

His production company, Holy Coyote Studios, is named in honor of a distant relative, Saint Toribio Romo, otherwise known as the Holy Coyote. He was a Catholic priest who was killed in 1928 in the Cristero War.

Campos’ passion for filmography and attention to detail led to a beautiful documentary that captured feelings of hope and connection.

It was originally a series of shorts and videos that began in 2022 and was later converted into a 20-minute documentary for Tarleton professor Dr. Robert Anderson’s digital video production course.

Inspired by making the first episode, Campos decided to continue filming and ended up with eight full episodes.

As he took advanced video editing and art of film classes in later semesters, Campos came to the conclusion that his episodes would be better served as one continuous film.

“Mission” is dedicated in memory of Jorge “Jorgie” Simon Dueñes, Campos’ cousin, who was lost to suicide in 2024, and this led him to change his outlook on the production as a whole. 

“The context of the production changed halfway through. Initially, it was just going to be a documentary following the lives of the individuals,” Campos said. “It was going to be a little more surface level and as it went on, I kind of had a recognition that it could be something a lot deeper.”

The episodes added up to around three hours, and once fine-tuned into a documentary, it was around 80 minutes. 

“It grew into something this big, and I had to crunch it down into something smaller. All along the way, I was showing it to people and getting feedback from them, so that’s been an important part of the creative process, considering it’s a documentary,” Campos said. “It’s not necessarily a narrative, 100% ‘this is my vision’ like a David Lynch type of thing, but more of an ‘I want more people to resonate with this.’”

The story itself is meaningful to Campos, and he worked to highlight the CCM as well as the many different aspects of Catholicism. 

“What this is, is a journey of faith, a journey of redemption, a journey of community and a journey of fellowship,” Campos said.

The documentary explores the experiences of people finding peace and community while breaking away from despair. Each person is at a different spot on the same journey forward, and “Mission” allows the viewer to catch a glimpse into their lives and see the ways they have been changed by Christ. 

“I started it because I want people to feel hope that there are good people in the world; I didn’t realize how much deeper that would go, that it would become ‘I want people to feel hope, that they are truly worth it,’” Campos said. “It doesn’t simply apply to people who are our age, I believe it applies to anybody of any age who is without hope, and maybe that’s an individual who is far along in their faith journey.”

Campos hopes to make a second documentary following this narrative in around 15 years, and if he can, he would like to make a third installment to conclude the series later in life.

“I don’t really see this documentary as an end, I see this as a beginning of a lifelong project that, hopefully, I live long enough to fulfill,” Campos said.

Campos is currently talking with the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a global Catholic TV network, about featuring his documentary on their upcoming Catholic-centered streaming service similar to Netflix. The release date of the service is currently unannounced. 

The film recently aired at the Tarleton Planetarium located in the Lamar Johanson Science Building. Campos hopes to have the documentary available for free to watch once it is fully released.

“Mission” won first place at the 11th Annual Juried Student Exhibition hosted at the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center Gallery, standing alongside many other entries from talented students. 

Campos also has a passion for music and composed the scores for the documentary himself.

The album titled “Mission (Original Documentary Soundtrack)” will be available on all music streaming platforms, including Spotify, on Easter Sunday.

To keep up to date on news regarding “Mission” follow the Holy Coyote Studios on Instagram.