Luis Carlos Romero-Davis, a resident of Tucson who grew up on the border, recently received the Audience Award for Best Film at the Puerto Vallarta International Film Festival. He received the Golden Iguana, which is the highest award in the international festival.

Luis Carlos Romero-Davis, a resident of Tucson who grew up on the border, recently received the Audience Award for Best Film at the Puerto Vallarta International Film Festival

Titled, “389 Miles Living the Border,” the documentary-film is a human journey along the Arizona-Mexico border that presents the raw daily lives, the complexities and multi- dimensional nature of people living along the border.

Romero-Davis, who grew up on both sides of the border, wrote, produced, and directed “Living the Border” as a response to his feelings of being torn between two cultures.

“There is no purely good side or bad, only the steel wall or a strand of rusty barbed wire and the complex web of human emotions forged by them, rape, corruption and survival. It is evil and grace in many disguises,” says Romero-Davis. He recently obtained his Master’s degree from the Latin American Studies department of the University of Arizona with a focus in Media Art.

On more than one occasion during the filming Romero-Davis felt threats to his safety. Once, in a remote location near Sasabe, he noticed that he was being followed. Afraid that his work might be confiscated, he stashed the tapes in his underwear. The result of his final efforts is an unfiltered, starkly realistic portrayal of life that is close to home, but beyond most of our imagination.

This is the young filmmaker’s first major success and he dedicated the Golden Iguana award to his family, which supported him throughout his journey to become a film producer and director. Unfortunately his father Armando Romero only saw fragments of the documentary. He died shortly before the film was completed.

“389 Miles Living the Border” was also featured at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, the most important film festival in Mexico and one of the top three festivals in Latin America.

Romero-Davis is working on the film adaptation of the book “Living Gods, Broken Idols,” and he is producing and directing two new documentaries.