PBS debuts heartbreaking, beautiful lesbian short film ‘Vámanos’

The PBS Online Film Festival just released a thirteen minute short film — Vámanos — that dives deep into love, family, and how those relationships collide once someone dies.

When Hope learns that Mac, her recently deceased butch girlfriend, is going to be buried in a dress, she desperately tries to persuade Mac’s mother to bury her in a suit instead. Fighting an uphill battle against centuries of tradition, Hope decides to take the matter into her own hands with the help of her friends and give her lover the burial she deserves.

The end result is a captivating, heartbreaking and warming, beautiful short film that all queers should fit into their schedule today.

Moira Morel — who co-wrote the film — told NewNowNext it came from a personal place.

“When I was 19, I read a borrowed copy of Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg,” she said. “There is a passage in the book where the protagonist attends the funeral of an older butch woman from her community, and she is shocked to see that the family of the deceased has chosen to bury her in a dress. To add insult to injury, there was pressure on the butch friends of the deceased to also wear dresses in order to attend the services, a real humiliation for them.”

“I knew for certain that if something terrible were to happen to me, that I too would be going six feet under in full makeup and a dress, something I never would have never wanted,” she explained. “That’s when the seed for Vámonos was planted—16 years later, it’s come to bear fruit.”

In addition to the short film, the produces of Vámanos asked people what they would want to be buried in a short, fun youtube video. Check both of them out!