Los Angeles, CA (July 2, 2024) – The winner of numerous awards, including the Jury Award for Best LGBTQ+ Short Film at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, “El Paisa” will premiere as part of the 2024 PBS Short Film Festival and will be available to stream on all PBS and station digital platforms, including PBS.org, YouTube and the PBS app. The festival, which runs from July 15-26, celebrates the art of short-form storytelling and will feature 15 independent films.
Co-produced by Latino Public Broadcasting and written and directed by Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, “El Paisa” is a moving queer coming-of-age drama about Fernando, a gay, goth skater (Cristian Urbina). After a mysterious white-hatted vaquero (David Ty Reza) rescues him from a group of neighborhood toughs on the streets of East L.A., Fernando finds the courage to end a closeted relationship and discovers a newfound strength and connection to both his Mexican-American and his LGBTQ+ familias. Inspired by Carrera’s own experiences growing up as the gay son of Mexican immigrants in Southern California, the film celebrates the transformative moment when he was able to embrace both aspects of his intersectional and multicultural identity.
“El Paisa” (an often derogatory term for a recent arrival from the Mexican countryside) won the Audience Award at the Long Beach Q Film Festival, the Jury Award for Best Short Film and Audience Award at the Highland Park Independent Film Festival, and the Jury Award for Best Short Film from the East LA Film Festival and the South Central Film Festival. The film’s original music was written, composed and produced by Ricky Garay and Silas Hite of Los Tigres del Acordeón. Garay also created and leads Cumbia Fever, a weekly Cumbia dance night like the one depicted in the film, in downtown L.A. Written and directed by Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, “El Paisa” is produced by Miguel Angel Caballero.
For more information and updates on the PBS Short Film Festival, visit www.pbs.org/filmfestival. Viewers are also encouraged to engage in online conversation by tagging @PBS and using #PBSFilmFest on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
About the Filmmaker
Daniel Eduvijes Carrera (Writer/Director) is an accomplished filmmaker whose work has screened at the Tribeca, Guadalajara, Morelia, Huesca and Los Angeles Film Festivals, at numerous art museums and on international television. He is the winner of the Imagen Foundation Award, a top prize winner in Ovation TV’s “Search for the Next Revolutionary Filmmaker,” and was recognized as Best Latino Film Director by the Directors Guild of America Student Film Awards. His previous short, The Fires of Soledad, premiered on pbs.org in 2019.
About PBS Short Film Festival
Since its inception in 2012, the PBS Short Film Festival, formerly called the PBS Online Film Festival, has showcased independent films of all genres. The festival, now in its thirteenth year, features short films created by PBS member stations, ITVS, POV and a wide variety of public television producers. Each year the films highlight topics like social injustice, religion, addiction, public policy, love and other subjects inspiring to the filmmakers. Throughout the festival, viewers can watch, love and share their favorite films on a variety of platforms. At the close of the festival, a prize is awarded to the film chosen by the hand-picked jury. The 2024 PBS Short Film Festival represents a celebration of independent films and filmmaking, and a love for the art of storytelling. For more information, visit www.pbs.org/filmfestival.