On this episode of LOL, our Producer and host of Paola's Picks, Paola "Pie" Soto interviews filmmaker Gary Terracino. This hard-working Dominican-American talent wrote and directed the award-winning short film, "My Polish Waiter," which played Sundance and Lincoln Center & MoMA’s New Directors/New Films Festival among many others. His feature film debut, “Elliot Loves,” which he wrote and directed, won six awards on the festival circuit in 2012-2013, including the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, and played over 70 festivals worldwide. “Elliot ” sold to TLA Releasing for worldwide distribution and to HBO for cable and streaming. After airing on HBO and HBO Latino for several years, it is now available on Amazon, Tubi and iTunes, among other streaming platforms. 

Terracino was a staff member of the HBO-New York International Latino Film Festival from its founding in 2000 until 2012. 

Terracino was lead researcher for the best-selling 2015 biography of Woody Allen, “Woody,” by David Evanier. He has also been a freelance journalist for The New York Times, Urban Latino and Remezcla.  His TV pilot, “Nelson!” sold to Warner Bros TV/Stage 13. 

His new feature film, “Waking Up Dead,” which he wrote and directed, stars Traci Lords, Gabriel Sousa and Judy Geeson. A dark sex comedy shot in LA at the height of the pandemic, the film was profiled extensively in the Hollywood Reporter, Variety and on the BBC. It won the Festival Favorite and Director’s Choice awards at the 2022 Cinema Diverse/Palm Springs Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and sold to Breaking Glass Pictures for distribution.