Tags: #PBSINDIES, Anti-Bullying, Bullying, Indie Shorts, Indies, LGBT, LGBTQ, LPB, Marvin Lemus, Moira Morel, PBS.org, Ryan Velasquez
LPB Digital Shorts Premiere on PBS Indies
LPB is excited to announce that the digital shorts, DROWNING and VÁMONOS, will premiere on PBS.org today as part of the PBS Indies online curation of short and long form independent films. This curation is an online destination offering a diverse collection of short and feature length independent films. To view this collection, please visit www.pbs.org/indiefilms or click below.
“We’re delighted to have our productions launching on the PBS Indies online platform this summer,” said LPB Executive Director Sandie Viquez Pedlow. “Each of these films is the work of promising new Latino filmmakers and represent our longtime commitment to nurturing new talent. We’re also pleased to be producing more content for the digital space and proud to bring these three new works to PBS’s large and diverse online community.”
You can also catch the shorts streaming on New Now Next and Latina Magazine. Be sure to watch, share, and tag LPB on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
DROWNING
Producer: Ryan Velasquez
Genre: Drama/12 Minutes
WATCH DROWNING NOW
Gabe, an overweight high-schooler, finally musters the courage to talk to Sarah, the girl of his dreams, and a promising friendship that’s almost too good to be true forms. He even starts feeling good about the “extra love” he’s carrying around. But when Sarah becomes the target of Marcus, his personal bully, things take a turn for the worse and Gabe must decide whether or not to finally stand up.
About the Filmmaker
Ryan Velasquez (Writer/Director) was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area to a Guatemalan father and Chinese mother. Growing up biracial in a diverse socio-economic community has impacted his voice and style as a filmmaker. In 2012, he graduated from the American Film Institute’s prestigious directing program where he was given the Bridges-Larson Production grant for demonstrating skill in working with actors. His short film Ojalá went on to win the DGA Student Award and screened at over a dozen festivals around the world. His follow-up short Record Breaker won “Best Comedy” at LA ShortsFest, making it eligible for Academy Award consideration. Velasquez is currently in post-production on a web series called “Re-Date,” which is being financed and produced by Charles King’s Macro Ventures.
VÁMONOS
Director: Marvin Lemus
Genre: Drama/11 Minutes
WATCH VÁMONOS NOW
Hope is distraught when she learns that Mac, her recently deceased girlfriend, is going to be buried in a dress. She desperately tries to persuade Rosa, Mac’s mother, to bury her in a suit instead. Realizing that she’s fighting implacable traditional views, Hope, with the help of her friend, takes matters into her own hands. Will she have the courage to follow through and honor her dead lover’s identity?
About the Filmmakers
Marvin Lemus (Director) is a Mexican/Guatemalan-American writer, director and producer. Lemus’ work in digital comedy ranges from successful viral video campaigns for the Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate feature film Dear White People to original digital content that has been featured on numerous websites like HuffingtonPost.com, FunnyOrDie.com, and Flama TV. Lemus is a recent alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve. His work has been screened at San Diego Latino Film Festival, Frameline, Outfest, and Cinequest, to name a few. Recently, Lemus co-wrote and directed his first original web series, GENTE-FIED, about Latino characters dealing with the gentrification of Boyle Heights. The series is produced by the Macro Ventures and Executive Produced by America Ferrera.
Moira Morel (Writer/Director of Photography) is an accomplished cinematographer living in Los Angeles with a background in both documentary and narrative filmmaking. Morel was raised in a conservative Latino household in the suburbs of Detroit. After finishing high school, her desire to get a different take on the world led her to Evergreen State College (TESC) in Olympia, WA. It was at TESC that Morel found her passion for photography, documentary filmmaking and activism. In 2012 Morel was accepted into the cinematography program at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles. Since completing her MFA in 2014, Morel has shot commercials, music videos, shorts, and web series. Many of the films that Morel lensed have screened and won awards at film festivals nationally and internationally, most notably, The Skinny, which premiered at Sundance in 2015 and The Punk Singer, which had its world premiere at SXSW in 2013.
Erick Castrillon(Writer) was born in Colombia and was twelve when his family left to seek the stability of the American suburbs. He got his B.A. at Florida International University in English Literature, where deconstruction and post-colonial theory became his jam. Castrillon earned his M.F.A. in Writing for the Screen & Television from the USC School of Cinematic Arts. There he wrote several feature screenplays and short films while interning at Alexander Payne’s production company, Ad Hominem Enterprises. Upon graduating he was invited to participate in Film Independent’s diversity program, Project Involve, as a Screenwriting Fellow. There he co-wrote Vámonos, which premiered at Outfest Fusion Film Festival, and independently wrote and produced the short film Blast Beat, which premiered at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Shorts Film Festival followed by its Latin American premiere at the International Film Festival in Guadalajara.11311 Views