After a successful release at SXSW last year, “The In Between,” a documentary about the U.S.-Mexico border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, premieres on PBS this week. Weaving together the intricacies of daily life in a border town with the grief of losing a loved one, “The In Between” beautifully captures how a place can hold our memories even when we cannot.

Eight years ago, Mexican-American filmmaker Robie Flores returned home to Eagle Pass, determined to document the border town with an honesty often absent from its place in the news. Still adjusting to life after the untimely death of her brother Marcelo (Mars), Robie used Mars’s camera and his memory to present the town as she has always known it: a place in between. Just like her. Just like Mars.

Life In the In Between

Early on in “The In Between,” Flores laments that she doesn’t remember much about her childhood. From lack of visual documentation to a mental block surrounding her brother, her memories of life in Eagle Pass are scattered. “Maybe if I look for what I know about this place,” Flores says, “I can make my past feel more real.”

This desire to remember is what creates the narrative focus of “The In Between.” In an effort to relive the days when she was most surrounded by Mars, Flores follows in the footsteps of Eagle Pass’s youth. The result is a visual representation of this town that adamantly does not adhere to the status with which politicians so often label it.

Little girls dressing like ’90s Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla Perez. Teenagers crossing the border bridge to a party on the Mexico side, safe and unafraid. Young high school graduates dreaming about their futures. Children playing on the banks of the Rio Grande, on both sides, watching each other, waving.

With this focus, “The In Between” shows a bridge connecting one side to the other, Eagle Pass to Piedras Negras, that is not made of metal. It is a bridge made instead of the people, of the nature around them, of the memories that will last longer than any annexation of the land ever could.

 A Magical Portal

“I always wanted to make movies with my three brothers,” Flores says at the beginning of the documentary, “but Mars and I only ever got to shoot one thing together.”

There is no question that Robie is the voice and face of this story, but “The In Between” is still very much a family affair.

Paco, Robie’s older brother, helped with filming; Alex, Mars’s twin, is an executive producer; and Robie’s nieces and nephews are some of the children we follow. Their contributions and their presence make the emotional thread weaving the narratives together all the more vibrant and real. It is with Alex, in particular, that we see Robie open up more, become more honest and freer with her observations.

And though he is physically absent, Mars is present in nearly every scene. Not only is it through Mars’s camera that we see Eagle Pass, but it is also through his old videos that we see the siblings together. Mars gives us some of the memories Robie cannot.

And so: the Flores siblings always wanted to make a film together?

With “The In Between,” they finally have.

“The In Between” premieres on PBS’s Independent Lens on Monday, February 10^th 2025, at 10 p.m. Check local listings for more details.

Feature photo: “A picnic on the Rio Grande” by Alejandro Flores.