Award-winning "Lourdes" documentary filmmaker John Tenorio is not surprised by the blockbuster success of Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ," or the recent People's Choice Award received for the popular CBS "God" drama, "Joan of Arcadia."

"There's a trend toward 'faith films,'" said Tenorio, 49, a marketing and media consultant who attends Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Santa Clarita. Tenorio's "Lourdes" documentary, based on the Blessed Mother's apparitions to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 in France, has won three film awards, resulting in a distribution deal with one of America's leading distributors of films and videos. The film was just honored at the Valley International Film Festival in Studio City March 28 for "Best Documentary."

"Doors have opened up for us little by little," said Tenorio. An award garnered at the International Family Film Festival last year helped to land the distribution deal with New-York-based Cinema Guild, which considers "Lourdes" to be the "flagship" film for its catalog of religious films according to the firm's general manager, Gary Crowdus.

Cinema Guild sales director Luke O'Connell expects the film to do "very well" since initial sales of the documentary to educational/religious markets have been promising. "It's quite a nice film," said O'Connell. "In addition to giving a history of Lourdes, it gives a good look at how miracles are validated."

Based on the surprising ease of filming, production and distribution, Tenorio said, "It's almost been like Divine intervention for us."

"Lourdes" director and writer, pathologist Dr. Peter Hoffmann, 52, contacted longtime friend Tenorio in 1999 after reading a book about Lourdes he purchased at a garage sale. He was intrigued by the accounts of hundreds of miraculous healings occurring at Lourdes, numbering over 600 medical-board-certified instantaneous cures to date.

After submitting a script "treatment" to officials at Lourdes, who receive up to 200 requests a year for filming access privileges, the duo was given permission to film their documentary during rosary pilgrimage week in October, 2000.

"You could feel a kind of contagious spirituality around you; I felt a total immersion of love and caring," said Hoffmann. His film crew was given total access to the apparition grotto, the basilica built at the site and also St. Bernadette's crypt, where her uncorrupted body lies in state at the chapel in the convent at Nevers where she spent the remainder of her life as a Sister of Charity until her death in 1879 at age 35.

"I just want people to see it and make up their own mind," said Hoffmann. "I believe the film is an objective look at what's going on."

The Religion Communicators Council, the oldest and largest organization of professional communicators of religion, recently named the film a 2004 Wilbur Award Winner in the television film category. Hoffmann and Tenorio hope the film will be aired soon on a TV cable network.

For more information, or to purchase a DVD or VHS copy of "Lourdes," contact the Cinema Guild at (212) 685-6242 or log on to www.cinemaguild.com.