This summer’s World Heritage Designation elevated San Antonio’s missions on the world stage. Now, an event that will help bring you up to speed on the process and the reasoning behind the designation are scheduled. The San Antonio River Authority--SARA--is showing a pair of documentaries at several theaters around town.
"We at SARA created a documentary that explains the history of how the Mission Reach came about," said SARA's Yviand Serbones. "And then knowing that we were pursuing the World Heritage Designation, [we] included in the documentary how important connecting the Missions was."
The National Park Service created the second doc--called Gente De Razon, and it’s all about the history of the Missions. Reenactments were used to help viewers understand the Spanish colonization process.
"People can actually feel like they’re back in time and see how the missions operated and worked, and how the mixing of cultures of the Spanish and the Native American, and how they were kind of the roots of what San Antonio is today."
These two documentaries will be shown for free several times between this Thursday and October 14th at various theaters around town.
"This is in honor of the UNESCO World Heritage Designation for the San Antonio Missions. These two films will give the public the opportunity to learn more."
The designation caught some San Antonians by surprise. Watching these documentaries should bring those people up to speed. The actual process achieving designation took more than a decade and a half to accomplish.
"I think a lot of people don’t understand what it took for that project to be where it is. So this is a timeline," she said. "This is a great achievement, and we’re the first site in Texas to have this designation, so we really do want to highlight that."
The documentaries will screen at City Base Cinema, the Alamo Drafthouse Park North, and REI throughout September and October. For show times, go here.
