Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) today announced that their short film, Gold Star, written and directed by Karla Legaspy, won the top award at this year’s PBS Online Film Festival. Gold Star follows a young girl who dedicates a love song to her teacher during an elementary school talent show. The ensuing homophobic reactions from school officials and her mother taint the experience, but despite the disastrous evening, Iliana finds solace with friends. Filmmaker Karla Legaspy is also the co-founder and director of programming of the Latin@ Queer Arts and Film Festival/Cine Arte Film Festival—the only Latino Queer festival in the nation. Watch Gold Star above.
From July 11 – July 29, viewers voted for their favorite film and for the first time ever could vote by logging onto their Facebook or Twitter account and sharing their favorite film titles using #PBSolff. The films were available via PBS and station digital platforms, including PBS.org, YouTube and PBS social media channels; and via the PBS app on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku and FireTV devices. The films amassed more than 4.5 million views combined, up from 400,000 views in 2015, with Facebook being the most-used channel to view and share.
“PBS would like to congratulate Latino Public Broadcasting and Twin Cities PBS on their wins in this year’s Online Film Festival,” said Ira Rubenstein, Senior Vice President and General Manager, PBS Digital & Marketing. “PBS and our member stations are committed to sharing important stories from filmmakers across the country that inspire conversation, and utilizing our digital platforms to educate and engage. This year’s festival was seen by our largest audience ever, so to all of our producers, I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations on an outstanding showing.”
Another LPB-produced short, Vamonos tells the story of Hope, who after the death of her girlfriend, Mac, must overcome personal grief and homophobic hostilities from her girlfriend’s mother in order to respectfully send her off into the afterlife. For more information and to watch the film, visit PBSindies.
