In the desert outside of El Paso, Texas, the dunes glow like rust. It’s from the iron oxide in the soil. Thirty-four million years ago, it was covered by an ocean, but now the sound of waves has receded, to be replaced by that of internal combustion engines.
In her new documentary short, “Red Sands,” director/producer Romina Cenisio takes a ride with the gearheads and off-roaders who meet at this border town to drive over these ever-shifting and sometimes treacherous dunes. Ahead of the film’s world premiere at South by Southwest, Cenisio talked to the Chronicle about the history of this fascinating subculture, the difficulties of filming in the desert, and how she never realized she was already besties with a key figure in her story.
Austin Chronicle: How did you come across this story?Romina Cenisio: I actually grew up there. I’m from El Paso, and my boyfriend when I was 15 or 16 would bring me there on the weekend. He was an off-roader and that was what we did for fun, because there was not much to do in El Paso.
I’ve lived in New York for a long time and every time I went back to El Paso I would always have to go to Red Sands. It was only a few trucks 24 years ago, but in about 2018, 2019 it hit me that it was thousands of people. It went from five people to a hundred people to literal thousands, and the realization that this scene has resonated with so many El Pasoans, particularly the Mexican American community, it just seemed like a very important story to tell.
AC: With the scene having grown so much since you were a teenager, and so many people there, how did you find the people you wanted to focus on in “Red Sands”?
RC: The film follows three characters, and we had more, of course, but we really had to focus in, and these final three just felt like they made the most sense.
Ramiro, who’s the elder gentleman in the film, started this, pioneered this half a century ago, which is insane, and he is actually the father of my high school boyfriend that would take me. This got revealed halfway through the film as I was just catching up my high school boyfriend on the project, and he went, ‘You know my dad started that?’ I went, ‘No way,’ and luckily me and his dad are still bestie status.
I really wanted to tell the perspective of a woman, and so finding Rosy was so incredible. I feel so lucky, and she was hard to get to. I was talking to friends in the scene and going to Red Sands, and I’m like, “Who’s that girl in the scene?” and everyone was like, “Rosy, Rosy!” and I’m like, “Who’s Rosy?” because none of these people have Instagram or social media, so it was like a week to find Rosy and track her down – and then you still don’t know if this is going to be the right person or if they’re interested. But me and Rosy developed a friendship over the last three years, and every time we met it got better.
Omar represents, to me, the present. He’s really clued in with that scene. This is his family, too. They all either have kids and are bringing their kids or want kids and plan and bringing them down. They want to carry this down.
RC: It’s a style. It’s amazing to me. The people are kind of like cowboys but they’re also modern young kids. They’re in a Dallas Cowboys jersey but they have cowboy boots and belts and hats. It’s this new style that is not very common in other places. It’s that, and the fact that it’s predominantly Mexican American, and some of them are quite literally coming from a ranch. It’s quite cool to see a horse next to a 4×4 vehicle. It’s the music, and it’s obviously the landscape. Off-road and car culture exists in other places, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it come together in this Venn diagram.
AC: It’s amazing that everyone can keep their vehicles so clean, since everything must be covered in dust. The environment must have been pretty challenging to film in.
RC: I’ve known this, because I’ve been going there since I was a teenager, but bringing my DP, Sean Mattison, it was his first time being there and I told him, “Be ready to be covered in sand and dust, and you’re going to be removing it for days. You’ll be showering days later, and sand will be coming out of your ears.”
We were joking that we’re going to make a zine about all the mishaps, because there were so many funny things that happened. It’s the desert, we filmed mostly in the summer so it’s 110 degrees every day, the dust is flying, you have the lens that you can’t get crunchy, the equipment’s heavy. One of the night scenes, it dropped to 45 degrees and 70 mile per hour dust storms came in. You never knew what to expect when you’re dealing with nature and an environment like the desert.
We were on the way to the truck show, and an 18-wheeler flipped over on a highway in the middle of West Texas – literally jackknifed – and we were like, “Are we making the truck show?” We were stuck on this highway in 110 degree weather for about four hours, and we ran in at the very end.
Red Sands
Texas Short Program, North American Premiere
Friday 7, 6:30pm, Hyatt RegencyMonday 10, 11am, Rollins Theatre
Catch up with all of The Austin Chronicle‘s SXSW 2025 coverage.
This article appears in March 7 • 2025.
