"The Truth About Who We Are..."

Argentine Filmmaker Brings Personal Touch to Gay Characters

Kevin Truong
NBC Out
July 15, 2016

As a teenager growing up in San Luis, Argentina, Nicolás Teté found comfort in watching the Argentine telenovela "Verano del '98." "It was like our 'Dawson's Creek,'" Teté explained. "The show had two gay characters, Tadeo and Ricky, and they were boyfriends."

Seeing two gay men portrayed on television made Teté feel less alone, at a time when he was trying to convince his high school classmates, and himself, that he wasn't gay. "In Argentina, football is very important," Teté said. "And not playing football [for boys] is usually associated with being gay. I don't like football, but I tried to play because I didn't want the other boys to say I was gay."

Today, Teté no longer hides the fact that he is gay, and the 26-year-old filmmaker is now drawing upon these types of personal experiences to create films that continue to bring LGBTQ characters to life on television and film screens across Argentina.

Teté's first film, "The Last Family Holidays," premiered in 2013 and told the story of a young gay man's coming out to his family during a family vacation. "I wanted a coming-of-age film that also told the story of coming out of the closet," Teté explained. "Maybe because at the time I couldn't do that with my own friends and family."

Read the rest of the story here: NBC OUT