University of Southern California Cinematic Arts (Firm)

A collection of student films from the University of Southern California Cinematic Arts.

The year is 1933 and a young boy in Tokyo named Uchido has recently moved from the country and attends his first day of school. The class is run in a traditional and strict manner that is designed to teach the children to conform to a strict code of social behavior that includes expressing loyalty to the Emperor. Uchido runs afoul of this intention when he answers the teacher’s question by expressing his love for bean cakes instead of the emperor....

A man leads a monotone, humdrum existence until he suddenly falls in love. His world turns upside down after he meets a red-haired woman who manages to break his established routine. What follows is a short portrait of a difficult relationship marked by a struggle for control and preserving one’s identity, and finally loss and depression. Shortlisted for Best Short Film at the **Academy Awards**.

After seeing the smoke from an explosion on the horizon, an old weathered man leaves his island and goes to explore it in his airboat. At the site of the explosion he finds a pile of garbage and dead animals floating in the water. Suddenly there is another explosion and something shoots into the air like a rocket. The man goes to the source and finds a case of jars with some Chinese characters on the side. Inside the jar is a buzzing insect. A thought...

Once a successful Syrian actor, Jihad Abdo has now arrived in Hollywood as a refugee and struggles to reinvent his life and renew his career.. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at the Kuwait Int’l Film Festival.

Izzy is hesitant about reconnecting with a formerly close friend and in her dreams she explores their relationship to find and answer.

At the beginning of the dream, Nadine is handed a picture of herself playing the violin. Stanley, a man in clunky glasses who accompanies Nadine through her dream, demands a performance, and a chorus of suited men on the other side of a wall of windows stare at her expectantly. Throughout the dream, Stanley repeatedly nags Nadine about not cheating. Nadine finds herself in a kitchen, mixing flour and other ingredients in a bowl. She stops before dumping...

A modern, children’s fable about Maria, a smart, determined 10-year-old girl, who loves nothing more than her father and his bedtime tales. On the night her father goes missing, Maria, along with her little brother Juan, embark on a journey across the U.S. / Mexico border in hopes of bringing him back home, but not without the guidance of three curious, yet meddling desert creatures. When dream-world meets reality, Maria and Juan are picked up by...

Directed by Oscar nominee and film legend George Lucas (*American Graffiti, Star Wars*) ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH shows us a world that is run by electronics and people are categorized by number and assigned mates for life. One man, numbered THX 1138 4EB, decides he must try to escape. Selected for the National Film Registry by the **National Film Preservation Board**.

Elliot is a prankster, unpredictable, and never takes life too seriously. These have always been the characteristics that his brother, a far too suppressed Paul, loved about him. But now that Elliot is dying of cancer and is choosing his “Right to Die” under the Death with Dignity Act, Paul isn’t too sure of what to make of his brother’s recklessness. Paul internally struggles with his brother’s choice and unwillingly performs his brotherly...