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Benny, 43, is on a gurney, being wheeled down a hallway. He was just beat up in the hospital parking lot.

"Otra vez, Benny!" Felicia says to him with typical soap-opera exasperation. Es que tu nunca aprendea? Esos hombres te van a matar."

Her brother looks up at her and tells her he's got everything under control. Those men he owes money to won't kill him, he assures her.

"Se preocupa demasiado." A person can worry too much.

Benny and Felicia are characters played by Carlos Cabarcas and Ana Emilia, who spend nearly an hour getting that scene down, shooting several angles.

They are in the cast of a health education film shot this month over 10 days in a vacant building on the campus of the former Los Lunas Hospital and Training School. The one-hour film will be played in waiting rooms in University of New Mexico medical facilities.

The plot twist with this production is that the film is being created in the style of a classic melodramatic telenovela. Most of the dialogue is in Spanish.

It's called "Torments of the Heart." And Benny isn't the only troubled soul in this soap opera.

Anna Marie ends up in a diabetic coma. Ray drinks and drives. Carmen imbibes with him, even though she's pregnant.

Don't get in that car, Carmen!

"Torments" (aka "Tormentos del Amor") was written and produced by Ella Sitkin and Jim "Grubb" Graebner, and much of the crew comes from the filmmaking classes Graebner teaches at Central New Mexico Community College. The Spanish translation was done by Magali Arreola.

Veteran Albuquerque actor Miguel Martinez chose the project for his directorial debut.

Martinez said the plan is to get the pilot running in the hospital waiting rooms and then secure funding - perhaps from UNM or the Legislature - for more episodes. Eventually, he said, he'd like to see the Spanish-language telenovelas grow beyond this project and target a national TV market in the United States.

"I think we can speak to the Latino community . . . in a way they would pay attention to," Martinez said. "And I hope we can make something that starts a little cottage industry here in New Mexico."

"Torments of the Heart" has fun with the format but takes its task - providing health education to the Spanish-speaking population - seriously.

Unlucky Benny not only has some gamblers on his case, but he smokes, too. No matter how many women in his life try to set him straight about his bad habits, he doesn't seem to learn his lesson.

At one point, a physician steps in and lectures Benny. "Did anyone ever tell you," the doctor intones, "the best thing you can do for your health is to hang around with people who don't hate you?"

Martinez said the telenovela format kept the production from being stale and didactic.

"When you have someone stop and give a lecture - that gets pretty boring, and that's what we were trying to avoid," Martinez said.

The plan is to deliver a finished film to UNM by June 1. Martinez said he expects to have a premiere screening - perhaps at the KiMo Theater or the National Hispanic Cultural Center - around that time.

After shooting the scene with Benny and Felicia, Cabarcas remains strapped to the gurney in the hallway. The crew sets up to shoot Scene 54. This time it's another character, Rosa (Diana Martinez-Marr), giving him an earful about his unhealthful ways.

Director of photography Luis Molina is setting up the main camera shot. At one point he places a pencil-holder half a foot in front of his digital camera. Martinez calls the technique "dirtying up the frame."

Molina needs the background lighting tweaked. He calls for student Cody West to adjust the angle of a big white screen off to the side.

That's the work of the grip - "shaping the light" so that it looks just right on camera.

West is finishing his studies at CNM and hopes to get into the TV/film technicians union soon.

"It's kind of like painting a picture," West said of his key grip job. "It's very artistic. And you're making a thing look good on camera and making the film look good."

West is starting to get experience on productions around Albuquerque. He saw CNM as a way to break into the industry.

"I've always enjoyed doing movies. I've been an artistic person my whole life. . . . I saw an opportunity here and decided to go down that path."

Robert Johnston is the technicians union mentor on the set of "Torments of the Heart." He teaches with Graebner at CNM and has worked on some New Mexico productions, including "Wild Hogs" (due out next week) and "Bordertown" (the Gregory Nava film starring Jennifer Lopez).

A small project like the telenovela is invaluable for the students, Johnston said.

"What they're doing is a working lab," he said. "It's not just a classroom experience. They are working in the field developing skills."

The main goal is to have top-notch crew talent ready when the next Hollywood production rolls into town. And to have Hollywood bring fewer and fewer people with them and instead hire New Mexicans for the tasks.

"The hands-on thing is so important," Johnston said of the location work. "They learn the skills and the etiquette of being on the set."

"They're eager," said Christina Woodlee, who was on the set representing the New Mexico company This Machine Productions. "They're willing to learn, which is a good sign."

Back on the set, Scene 54 is ready to go.

"Roll sound."

"Rolling."

"Roll film."

A pause and it's Molina's turn: "Oink."

Then Martinez: "Action!"

"Benny! Benny!" Rosa says as she hovers over the gurney. "Deves de dejar las apuestas!"

But will Benny ever give up his gambling ways?

Will Anna Marie come out of her diabetic coma?

Will Ray's drinking and driving catch up with him?

Tune in this summer for the next episode of . . . "Tormentos del Amor."