In his 20-year career, Aurora native Gabe Torres has directed award-winning movies and television shows for ABC, Fox and the Discovery Channel. But the project that has given him the most satisfaction as an artist is a 23-minute short film that has brought no financial reward.

In fact, Torres is still trying to recover money to pay back friends and colleagues who helped him produce the low-budget historical drama called “Last Stand.#”

He has just released the picture, which has won numerous film festival honors the past two years, on DVD. And he's hoping to negotiate a contract to have it aired on the Independent Film Channel.

“It's a beautiful little film,#” Torres said in a telephone interview from California, where he now lives. “It sort of blossomed into this amazing adventure for everyone involved.#”

“Last Stand#” tells the story of a 12-year-old Lakota Indian boy who befriends a dying cavalry soldier he sees after the Battle of Little Big Horn. It stars Jason London and Joseph Saul, an Indian boy Torres discovered at a talent show on the Torres/Martinez Indian Reservation in California.

Torres is selling the DVD through a couple of Web sites, one for people buying it for personal use and the other for schools and libraries. The DVD features a number of extras, including a documentary on the making of the film, director's comments, deleted scenes, photos and auditions.

Cayuga County residents may know Torres best for a film he shot in his native Aurora called “The Legend of Firefly Marsh,” which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year.

He began making films as a child growing up in Aurora, and won a prestigious scholarship for one of his works that enabled him to attend film school at the University of Southern California.