Films N - S

Nostos

Sofia Camargo, GRAD

Feeling threatened by her mother’s pregnancy, Juana, a seven-year-old girl, impulsively steals a baby rabbit and runs away to the mountain.

Ovejas y Lobos

Alex Fischman, UG

In New York City, a culture of isolation and silence exists as the only way for some to stay afloat. A mother's world shatters after her son vanishes without a trace. Set in the height of the Peruvian armed conflict, "Ovejas y Lobos" [Sheep and Wolves] follows a mother’s suspenseful search through the perilous, vast, and unforgiving landscape that mirrors her seemingly insurmountable mission.

Overnight Water

Jasmine Ding, UG

Unable to travel home across closed borders after her mother’s sudden and isolated death in China, a middle-aged immigrant named Mei grasps for consolation and connection while living alone in COVID-era New York—until one afternoon, she encounters a familiar stranger on the streets nearby. Two forms of modern homelessness collide.

Petunia

Alec Cohen-Schisler, UG

A broke twenty-something scrambles to afford the vet bill for his dying cat.

Plan C

Naa Adei Mante, GRAD

Plan C, is a comedy about a girl who searches for an illegal abortion pill after she realizes that she has been impregnated by the worst. person. ever. Forced to make this decision before she even processes how she feels about motherhood, Plan C follows the psyche of a girl struggling to make the right decision (whatever that means) while simultaneously trying to get her hair done. Plan C was funded, in part, by The USC Annenberg Reproductive Rights Accelerator Award. Naa Adei is one of four inaugural recipients of this pivotal award.

Polly

Mateo Obrador, UG

Polly, a worn out spirit raised by a twisted puppeteer, gravitates between an individualism defined by her controlling upbringing and a multi faceted being developed by her surroundings. She is a hustler floating through New York City's pungent air and wallowing in her comfortable misery. The intrinsic doubt and constant back and forth between her Human self and her Universal self has drained her of all power of will and turned her into a conformist. Her constant dilema rises from the duality of having one definition which she is not convinced of at all, and an infinite spectrum of loose identities she cannot pinpoint. A monopoly of thought versus a range of possibilities so wide that it engulfs more doubt than answers, stripping away both her individualism and the certainty to choose. Polly is a representation of the human condition, removed from societal constructs and focused purely on the core existential doubt we are all born with.

Pop!

Alexandra Hsu, GRAD

Jennifer is a Chinese American woman in her mid-30s and is suffering from adult acne. She is still living at home with her Tiger-Mom mother, Pearl who coerces Jennifer into attending her Chinese New Year Banquet.

Private Lessons

A trumpet teacher named Oliver goes through the motions of his lackluster lessons. Ms. Coates, a teacher at the school where Oliver holds his lessons, asks him to play at an assembly, but he gives a non-answer. When he returns home, he finds his apartment completely empty, void of furniture and decorations. A note hangs on his wall. It is a farewell from his girlfriend, Kate. In the midst of his grieving, a private lesson student arrives at his apartment door.

Punter

Jason Adam Maselle

Young Brett must navigate the underbelly of the Johannesburg gambling world as a seemingly harmless horse-racing bet jeopardizes the surprise he's prepared for his father's birthday.

Rooster Will Crow Again

Fengyuan Zhao, GRAD

Yulin, our protagonist, knows that his wife's soul is fading. In the hope of saving her last bits, he agrees to transfer her soul to a chicken for 7 days. He is stuck in a dilemma of taking an absurd chance or losing the love of his life. The uncertainty of hope is like a dark tunnel, yet the willingness to try is a sign of love, and bravery.

Roots That Reach Toward The Sky

Jess X. Snow, GRAD

When her mother’s Chinese Traditional Medicine shop gets vandalized, Kai, a young botanist and heir of her mothers ancestral practice is pushed to the edge of what her mental health can handle. Thrust in the middle of her immigrant mother’s grief and her partner’s quest for collective catharsis, Kai must confront the healing she most resists and choose what is most important to her.

Sandcastles

Carin Jin-Yi Leong, UG

SANDCASTLES parallels two Singapores: one in Southeast Asia, and one buried on the western coast of Michigan. On top of sharing the same name, these two places also share a fraught relationship with sand. Singapore, Michigan was a thriving lumber town in the late 19th century until erosion from mass deforestation caused the sand dunes around it to shift and swallow the town whole. Just as quickly as Singapore, Michigan disappeared under sand, its namesake in the East emerged from it through land reclamation. The film weaves a narrative that intertwines the two Singapores to depict the temporal nature of human edifices built on and destroyed by nothing more than sand.

Scratch-Off

Tara Sheffer, GRAD

A home healthcare worker steals her dementia patient’s winning scratch-off lottery ticket.

Seeds For All!

Juan Pablo Daranas Molina, GRAD

A rising Latina executive navigates an important presentation while unaware of a big booger on her face. An absurdist satire about identity politics and how they are used, misused, and abused.

Shadow

Max Clark, GRAD

Amidst the possible reappearance of her violent ex-husband, a young mother struggles to find her missing son.

Shrink

Aliza Jawahar, UG

The film begins at the climax when Dr. Harper Angst, disillusioned with her stagnant therapeutic practice, faces a pivotal moment when her client, Lewis, confronts her. The narrative unfolds through a series of flashbacks and Harper's introspective narration. Two clients, Lewis and Andy, sent by "Gold Leaf Investments," unwittingly reveal their involvement in money laundering during their sessions with Harper. As she pieces together their scheme, Harper grapples with the moral dilemma of seizing the laundered funds. The story navigates Harper's journey from contemplation to a daring decision to orchestrate a heist. Returning to the film's opening, we witness Harper's strategic manipulation, leveraging confidential session details to pit her clients against each other and execute a daring escape with the ill-gotten gains.

Siesta

Gustavo René Sanabria, GRAD

Steeped in Paraguayan folklore and setting a fable-like story within a contemporary and eerie world, SIESTA depicts the nightmarish experience of Ramona, an immigrant domestic worker, as she attempts to maintain appearances on the day of her employer’s baby shower. In an effort to mitigate Cindy’s jealousy toward her unborn baby brother, Ramona tells Cindy a cautionary tale from her childhood. But when Cindy’s jealousy toward her brother reaches new heights during her mother’s baby shower, Ramona’s premonitions begin to escalate in parallel and ultimately revive ghosts from her past and test her love for the child. SIESTA puts an inquisitive magnifying glass on class dynamics within a latinx subgroup and the wider milieu of the filthy rich in America. It examines our desperate need to assimilate, and the dissociative experience of feeling inextricably linked to two clashing worlds. The core of this film is energized by the ghosts of our past and the love that has sustained us.

Stray

Leo Zhang, GRAD

A runaway girl breaks into her childhood home.