No small achievement: while exploring what makes a dwarf a dwarf, filmmaker Steven Delano learned how family and faith made him who he is.

In his documentary No Bigger Than a Minute, Catholic filmmaker Steven Delano asked his mother a tough question: "If you had known earlier than the night I was born there was a problem, and that my life might have been more difficult because of that, might you have chosen to terminate the pregnancy?" His mother's answer was definitive: "Not at all.... We wanted to give you a chance to live." Although he did not set out to make a movie about his faith or even himself, Delano's film ended up reflecting his values--life, love, family--as well as himself.

INSPIRATION: For his first feature-length film, Delano, a creative producer and film editor for Denver Center Media, tackled a very personal topic: dwarfism. Delano has a condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a variety of dwarfism caused by a sporadic mutation in the genetic sequence.

He is one of an estimated 50,000 dwarves in the United States. Most people have never met or had personal conversation with one of them. Delano himself didn't meet another dwarf until his mid-30s. Instead the images we have of "little people," as many prefer to be called, come from the media and the entertainment industry, and they are often comedic and shallow. With his film, Delano says he wanted to explore both these images and the real people behind them to find out what it is that makes a dwarf a dwarf.

TURNING THE CAMERA: Delano planned just to interview dwarves in media, but his film became a personal journey. As he worked on the documentary, Delano realized he had something new and interesting to say, and colleagues wanted to see more of him in the movie--the first about little people by one of their own.

Delano, however, doesn't even like his picture to be taken. "I can't tell you how many times I would be walking downtown and I catch my reflection in a storefront window and turn away because I don't want to be reminded that I look different than anyone else walking down the street," he says. "It is still difficult. But I also learned that you can take control of that unwarranted attention and do something positive with it--like make a movie," he jokes.

The process has been beneficial for him both artistically and personally. "In a way, I was forced to become more introspective because it just made sense," Delano says. "It made for a better movie." It also helped him revive and appreciate all those things that he "grew up with and took for granted all of my life, like family and faith," he says.

FAITH IN DIVERSITY: Delano doesn't reflect on his faith in the movie, but the film reflects the Catholic values that are important to him, especially respect for life. "This is a beautiful world that we live in," Delano says. "I happen to believe that there is a higher power at work, and that things are as they were meant to be."

His life, disability and all, is a gift from God, and he found this sentiment echoed not only in his mother but in other parents interviewed for the movie. They all responded that they wouldn't have aborted their baby, even if they knew the baby would be a dwarf or born with disabilities.

Genetic modification, though important for the advancement of science and the improvement of human life, also raises serious concerns for Ddano. "It might mean that certain kinds of people will be weeded out of existence," he says. Science should help people and alleviate suffering, but it is also important to "keep the diversity that disability is a part of," Delano says. "We have to investigate these things, all along the way questioning whether we are making the correct choices."

FAMILY VALUES: Delano's faith, values, and confidence come from his Irish-Polish Catholic family and 15 years of Catholic education, and his film is a tribute to family.

"My folks always rose to the occasion," says Delano, an only child. "Whatever came up, whatever fighting there was to do, they did it, and I was always taken care of."

His father and hero, James, who passed away in 1998, instilled in him the belief that his disability needn't get in the way of his dreams. "I think I got my sense of adventure from him," Delano says. "I wouldn't be here today with any bit of success had he not said to me, 'If you want to do anything, you should try.' And he showed me by example."

Even with his father gone and his mother still in Massachusetts, where Delano grew up near a large extended family, he is confident in his support system. "There is absolutely nothing that could happen to me tomorrow that my family would not help me with. It is comforting to know that they are only a phone call away."

COMING SOON: Delano's film has been praised as clever, surprising, and stylish. Last fall it was a big sensation at the Denver Starz Film Festival and made its national television premier on PBS as part of the P.O.V. (point of view) series. He's now acquiring the permits necessary to release it on DVD.

After the success of his documentary, Delano plans to spend more of his time and artistic talent in filmmaking. Having bared his soul in front of the camera, he is looking forward to being behind it again, doing what he does best: telling stories from a very unique point of view.

STEVEN DELANO

FILMMAKER, DENVER CENTER MEDIA

FAVORITE MOVIE: Citizen Kane 

FAVORITE FILM DIRECTOR: David Lynch (Mulholland Drive)

HOBBIES: Books, music, and of course, film

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM: Pbs.org/pov/pov2006/nobiggerthanaminute

FAVORITE QUOTE: "[Dwarfs are] the most favored, the most successful, the most conspicuous and articulate [of the world's 'freaks'], but by the same token the most feared and reviled, not only in gossip and the popular press, but in enduring works of art, the great book, and great paintings of the West. They have been, in short, a 'chosen people,' which is to say, a people with no choice."

--Leslie Fiedler, Freaks (Anchor)

By MAR MUNOZ-VISOSO, a freelance writer in Denver.