PBS celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with two new online shorts

Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) has paired up with PBS to premiere two highly anticipated short films online in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Throughout Hispanic Heritage Month, which lasts from September 15 to October 15, you can view two new short films on PBS.org: Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande and New American Girls.

Frontera! is an animated short that tells the story of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 by using comic-book style animation, a unique style chosen by the acclaimed Chicano media artist John Jota Leanos.

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Leanos, the producer of the film, has created numerous award-winning films that have been shown at major festivals and museums around the world, such as the Sundance Film Festival, the San Francisco International Festival of Animation, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

Leanos used his unique creative vision to depict 1680’s Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico, where the Pueblo people rose up against the Spanish occupiers and took back control of the Rio Grande region.

New American Girls looks at the lives of three “Dreamers”: Mandeep, Lorella, and Kassandra. All three women were raised and educated in the U.S., and while they aim to pursue careers in medicine, law, and education, they all face setbacks because they were brought to the States by undocumented parents.

The women featured in this three-part program arrived in the U.S. when they were young girls; Mandeep’s parents moved her from India to the U.S., Lorella’s family came from Peru, and Kassandra’s parents brought her from Mexico City to New York.

New American Girls shares the personal lives and stories of these three inspiring DREAMers and how they aspire to excel despite their uncertain legal status. Their strength and perseverance helped push the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program through the Obama administration in 2012.

Both New American Girls and Frontera! will be available on PBS.org throughout HHM.

In addition to these online films, LPB has funded several programs that will air on public television throughout the month, including The Latino Americans, Rebel, The Graduates, Precious Knowledge, The State of Arizona, Reportero, and Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle.

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