Thursday Night Shorts

At the year 730 during Chinese Tang Dynasty, a family of tomb raiders open a noodle shop to cover their identities and plan to steal priceless artifact from the Chinese First Emperor’s tomb. But they mistakenly open the wrong tomb and release a talkative and outgoing Alien, who they have to hide.

“Do Not Go Gentle” is a short film written and directed by Nicole Avenia, starring Jonathan Salisbury and Smaranda Luna. In it, a bereaved man meets a young woman at a desolate hotel room, for reasons that are not initially what they seem. Inspired by the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” this is a story about personal loss and the yearning for human connection within the genre of grounded horror.

ML, a rough-hewn and shaggy haired single father, is looking for a semblance of stability in his personal life. When he is forced to pick up his angst ridden Asian son, Ping, from school after a bullying incident, ML rushes to a date at the local batting cage and forcibly brings his son along. As tension between father and son escalates, ML must choose between his love interest and his son.

“What is the taste of love?” Could it be sweet, sour, bitter or even salty? A girl embarks on an aromatic journey of love, stimulating her taste buds to the point of climax. With all senses, she explores the various forms love can take on.

Based on true events that shook California’s system of foster care. An atypical story of a defeatist suicidal teen who finds a friend in an oversexed 9 year old. Together, they go AWOL from the restrains of a group home facility. What emerges is a study of the sensibility of at-risk kids confined in a broken system, ostracized by the society.

When on a routine patrol, a Black female cop living in and patrolling Inglewood gets called to a disturbance she is forced to make an unprecedented life altering decision.

A short film about a combat medic attempting to hold on to humanity in the midst of a war much bigger than himself. A medic’s job is to fix people up, but how does that obligation reconcile with someone who is trained to fight and may be asked to kill?