‘Lagordiloca’ Street Journalist Drama In Works At Starz

The project, Inspired by Skip Hollandsworth’s and Leif Reigstad’s articles about Villarreal in Texas Monthly, comes from playwright, film/TV writer and filmmaker Hilary Bettis, who is penning the adaptation. Starz has put in development Lagordiloca, a drama series that chronicles the rise of street journalist Priscilla Villarreal as she capitalizes on the power of livestream reporting to expose corruption, cartels, and serial killers in the border town of Laredo, Texas.

A modern-day Folk Hero Tale, Priscilla’s use of social media pushes the boundaries of freedom of speech and press to the extreme, shaking the community’s foundation to its core. But above all else, this is the story of one woman’s unconditional love for her family and community.

A high school dropout who narrowly avoided prison in her early 20s, Villarreal, now in her 30s and using the moniker Lagordiloca, has become an unlikely lead news sources in Laredo as she regularly live-streams raw footage from local crime scenes to her 190K Facebook followers. Consistently pushing boundaries, the popular citizen journalist was arrested and taken to court for posting the names of two dead victims on social media before they had been made public by authorities.

“When we read Skip Hollandsworth and Leif Reigstad’s articles in Texas Monthly about Priscilla Villarreal, we knew it was a story we had to tell, said Boorstein. “Priscilla’s journey and her fight for social justice for the people of Laredo is not only filled with drama and high stakes, but also a deep sense of family and community. There is no one better to tell this story than Hilary Bettis. Her deep connection to the material was apparent from the first time we spoke. We are so happy to be partnering with Starz, who have been on the forefront of telling diverse stories with extraordinary women at the center.”