The National Park at the U.S.-Mexico Border in the Crosshairs of the ‘Big, Beautiful’ Wall

 

Big Bend is an otherwise dusty, overlooked outpost among the country’s national parks, many of which bring with them a splendor Big Bend can only surpass in isolation. But now—like everything else, really—it’s found itself in the political crosshairs, if for no other reason than it straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. Or, at least, it spills into Mexico, which until recently was part of its charm: Come for the desolation, stay for the small Mexican village that’s so impossibly quaint it seems more desert mirage than reality. All of which, of course, is endangered by the discussion of separating the two countries by a “big, beautiful” wall.

Earlier this year, MEL Films traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to better understand life at Big Bend as well as how the wall could upend decades of peaceful coexistence.

You can watch our subsequent documentary Ferryman at the Wall either here or above.