Night after night, Carmelo and his friend Arturo play mariachi music in restaurants and on the streets of San Francisco. Like many illegal Mexican immigrants, they send what little money they make home to support their families. But with his mother slowly succumbing to diabetes and his daughters growing up rapidly, Carmelo decides to return to Salvatierra, Mexico. He will still play his beautiful music, but now for much less money.

Romántico is much more than a film about mariachi music. It paints a picture of the unequal standards of living in two neighboring nations. Work is very hard to find in Carmelo’s hometown, and as miserable and hard as his life was in the States, at least from there he could afford to support his family. As he considers going back to the States, he finds that it is not as easy as it used to be to cross the border, legally or illegally, especially for a 60-year-old man.

Mark Becker works as a documentary filmmaker, editor and cinematographer. His film Jules at Eight has been broadcast on PBS, and has won awards from the International Documentary Association and the Student Academy Awards. He co-edited The Lost Boys of Sudan, which won an Independent Spirit Award, and The Beginning, a feature-length documentary about George Lucas. He has a Masters Degree from the Documentary Film program at Stanford University.

Producer: Mark Becker Screenwriter: Mark Becker Cinematographer: Mark Becker
Editor: Mark Becker Music: Raz Mesinai featuring Carmelo Muñiz & Arturo Arias Cast: Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez, Arturo Arias García