After a long absence due to the pandemic, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) senior undergraduate students of class 2020 were finally able to share their works on Wednesday night, September 14, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

By the time the young and diverse crowd had settled into their seats, at least half an hour after the scheduled start time, the large venue was nearly full, overflowing with eager anticipation.

“We took this showcase away from you two years ago and now we are going to give it back,” said Professor Nate Thomas, Head of Film Production. The audience cheered wildly. The big-screen event, he promised, would allow the students to experience “the crucible of exhibition,” that is, the point where “artists, audience, and art meet.”

Thomas proceeded to recognize the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its major contribution to the CSUN Department of Cinema and Television Arts, and pointed out that all directors of the evening were HFPA fellows.

Veteran director Mark L. Lester, a CSUN alum, encouraged the students to continue on their chosen path. “There is no better time to make films than right now,” he stressed; “Believe me, because I’ve been doing this for more than 50 years. I’ve seen the movie business through all kinds of permutations.”

He went on to compare the 110 American films, completed when he made his first feature in the early 70s, to the 10,000 works submitted this year at the Sundance Film Festival. “There’s money out there, there’s opportunity, people hiring, diversity. It’s mind-boggling how easy it really is today to make a film.”

As in the words of Jared Rappaport, the Department’s Chair, these young filmmakers were expected to “experiment, challenge authority, and ultimately find [their] voice”. Not surprisingly, the six shorts shown dealt with hot contemporary issues concerning racial and social justice, as well as with one’s ethnic and gender identity.

Cuffed, written and directed by Parker Caston Jr., filmed before the George Lloyd incident, anticipated the BLM movement by confronting the problem of racial prejudice. When two Black high schoolers accidentally witness a killing in a convenience store, they are assumed to be the perpetrators of the crime. Fear mixes with hatred and the result is combustible, leading to the loss of budding life.

El Mozote, spoken in Spanish, was written and directed by Jasmine Galdamez and pays tribute to a massacre that took place in El Salvador in 1981. During the civil war, government soldiers invaded a small village in the neutral zone and mercilessly executed all 1000 inhabitants, leaving behind just one survivor, whose story the film recounts.

Hot Latin Nights at the Granada! takes a look at a young man’s discovery of his Latin roots on the dance floor of a nightclub owned by his uncle, a popular salsa singer. “My Latin identity is a huge thing for me,” said Franco Vidal, the Peruvian American writer-director. He thanked his parents, who were warmly applauded, for encouraging him to remember his cultural heritage. “I wanted to make a story about the importance of finding joy and pride in your identity and where you come from,” he stated before his enthusiastic peers.

Identity from a perspective of gender is explored in A Beautiful Sin, a film about a transgender person who feels oppressed and unable to express themselves in a strict and punitive Muslim society. The story is told from the point of view of the heterosexual male partner who is troubled but compelled to search within, in order to determine what really matters to him. Writer-director Ahmad Jack Al Mazeedi admitted that he based the story on a personal experience.

A Más No Poder, spoken in Spanish, takes a look at the conditions in Mexico that lead to violence and to the disappearance and loss of innocent people. The writer-director Ruben Fuentes Jr. based his narrative on real-life events. “It’s a story of love, a message I wanted to send to help everyone back home who is in this particular situation,” he stated. “There are so many people who are suffering, and it’s time to change”.