A group of students from McAllen High School are bringing home a state championship for a short film they made.
The announcement was made February 28 at the UIL State Film Festival in Austin. The short film, called Guayabera, was written, directed and edited by senior Emmanuel Peña.
“Guayabera is a story about a boy who goes through the loss of his father,” Peña explained. “It progressively gets to him (and) finally, finding closure to letting go of his father. Making these types of films to where it can sympathize with other people’s problems … is very meaningful for me. I thought ‘how would it be if I lost any of my parents.’ ”
The film won in the Narrative Category for Class 5A schools. The title refers to a type of popular men’s shirt worn throughout Latin America.
“He is a very talented student,” McAllen High Technical Director Sean Folk said. “He’s intelligent and he comes up with these ideas.”
After undergoing three rounds of contests with more than 200 short films across the state, this film was selected for the State Festival. This is the second straight year Peña has submitted a film that eventually became a state finalist.
“This is an extremely difficult and amazing accomplishment to reach twice,” McAllen High Theatre Instructor Jason Barrera said. “McHi is the only school to repeat as state finalists in the narrative category.”
The seven-minute video can be viewed here:
PHOTO CAPTION
Pictured at top are McAllen High students and their instructor at the UIL State Film Festival Feb. 28 in Austin. The students participated in the production of the short film
Guayabera which won a state championship for Narrative in Class 5A. From left to right are Michael Taveras, Andre Rodriguez, Emmanuel Peña, Sean Folk (Instructor), Brennan Garcia and Lux Garcia.