The southwest border of the US is a unique boundary that is full of stories, meanings, challenges, suffering, and hope. These documentaries provide perspectives and insights. (These comments are drawn from their websites.)

Calvera Highway, from PBS’ POV series, is a poignant and complex narrative of seven Mexican American men who face personal and cultural matters of masculinity, fatherhood, and generational questions. Their stories take us through recent chapters of US-Mexico relations, the diversity in their own lives, and how they connect with what they learn about their parents.

“Dying to Live” explores the lives of people who immigrate into the US from Mexico – who are they, why do they leave their homes, and what do they face in their journeys? Drawing on the insights of Pulitzer Prize winning photographers, theologians, Church and congressional leaders, activists, musicians and the immigrants themselves, this film exposes the places of conflict, pain and hope along the US-Mexico border. It is a reflection on the human struggle for a more dignified life and the search to find God in the midst of that struggle. (trailer)

“Deportation of Mexican-Americans During the 1930s” provides interviews, photos, and research about a federal program to deport over one million men, women and children to Mexico during the depression of the 1930s. Many were US citizens without any status to immigrate to Mexico.