Some days if feels like the Lockdown has empowered people to create so many new online possibilities we may never want to leave our houses ever again.

Today the Webby Award-nominated PBS Short Film Festival returns for a ninth year from Monday, July 13 – Friday, July 24 to all PBS and station digital platforms, including PBS.org, YouTube and Facebook.

The festival, part of a multiplatform initiative to increase the reach and visibility of independent filmmakers, and to provide a showcase for diverse storytelling that both inspires and engages, features 25 short-form independent films presented in five categories: culture, environment, family, humanity and race.

We have not yet had a chance to view the entire program butif the one excellent short we have seen is indicative of the quality of them all,  then it  would be so worth signing up for the program 

In This Family is filmmaker Drama Del Rosario’s very own coming out story which will touch your very core. Growing up in the Philippines in a conservative Catholic family, Del Rosario was actually outed by his teacher.  Using audio recordings at the time he recounted the many verbal and physical fight he had particularly with his father 

In the film Del Rosario  explores how his parents eventually learned how  to embrace their children unconditionally (Del Rosario’s sister also came out as gay)

What is most remarkable about this whole story  is how Del Rosario reflects on his journey which was both tough and rough and energes without a single regret or bitterness to his parents.  He even mentions that he would happily forgive the teacher for her interference now.

So many of us do not escape unharmed from our own coming out experiences, and more of us could learn from Del Rosario’s fine example.