Neon

Child holding a birthday cake with number candles, including a star-shaped candle, at a birthday celebration.
A woman standing next to neon signs, one says 'I Love You' inside a red heart and another says 'Pescados y Mariscos' with a fish outline. The setting appears to be a restaurant or bar with wooden paneling.

Dreams

A Documentary Film by Stephanie Romero

NEON DREAMS is a documentary about a family’s lineage as Mexican neon makers in Los Angeles.

Exploring legacy, migration, and a disappearing craft.

Woman with curly hair washing dishes in a kitchen, seen through a glass door
Two men in a workshop, one appears to be working on a metallic apparatus while the other stands nearby holding a yellow string. The man working on the apparatus is wearing a pink shirt, and the other man is in a sleeveless black shirt. There are tools and boxes on shelves around them.
Two women in a recording studio, one adjusting a microphone and the other holding a glass, with a piano in the background.
A man with dark hair in a light uniform shirt, standing in front of a teal curtain, looking at the camera.
A woman with long, wavy dark hair standing on a city sidewalk at night, wearing a sheer black top and dark jeans.

Director’s statement

I grew up around neon. It was never just a material or a sign. It was the glow that lit up my childhood, the hum that lived in the background of my life. A presence before I even knew what presence meant.

I can recognize true neon anywhere. Paris. Los Angeles. Mexico City. A single line of color and my eyes find it instantly. Not only because it’s beautiful, but because I know the hands behind it. I know the heat. I know the patience. I know the toll it takes on the body. And I know what it took from my family, and what it gave them, too.

NEON DREAMS is my attempt to preserve something fragile. A craft disappearing in real time, and a lineage formed through labor, migration, and love. Through interviews with my family, returning to the workshops and returning to the glass, I hold their story with care and place it inside the larger arc of neon’s rise, decline, and possible rebirth.

At its core, this film is a love letter. To my family and to the craft their hands helped shape.

This is the story only I can tell. Because neon is not just my subject. It is my inheritance.