Friday was the final day of Black History Month, and in the case of the filmmakers and the African American Cinema Society behind Films Reflecting Ourselves Fest, they certainly saved their best for last. 

On Friday evening, roughly a dozen Black undergraduate and graduate filmmakers exhibited their short films to an eager audience at the FRO Fest — an annual short film showcase hosted by AACS at USC’s Fisher Museum of Art.

The screenings began at roughly 6 p.m. with “Black Boy,” an artistic interpretation of the Black male struggle by Nyawech Tut, a master’s student studying public diplomacy. The screenings continued for the next two hours as an influx of attendees began to crowd the screening room.

In an industry that loves to try to box Black creatives into repetitive cliches and stereotypes, the common motif of this event was filmmakers taking their individuality back. They told stories that they wanted to tell and that were authentic to them — not just imitations of what the world feels Black stories and characters should look like.

“We are not monolithic. We are more than just the stereotypes that have been pushed onto us,” said Robyn Nelson, a second-year graduate student studying cinematic arts, film and television production, who showcased “Fluff,” a short film about an aspiring Black woman journalist who struggles with feelings of inadequacy in the college application process.

Ambi Rachelle, a second-year master’s student studying cinematic arts, film and television production, touched on how she had to resist cliche stereotype suggestions when making her project “CPT,” a comedic short film about a young woman who struggles to combat “colored people’s time” to make it to her medical school interview on time.

“I did have people in my ears saying, ’Maybe she should be late because she couldn’t get her hair right.’ They wanted it to be more racial,” Rachelle said. “Something that I do in my work is try not to stereotype Black people and have them fit into this idea of what other people think Black people should look like. I try to take normal, everyday worries and just have Black characters.”

From cinematic arts, film and television production graduate student Tyler Holmes’ horror and comedy thriller “The Host,” which had audiences gasping due to its tension and plot twists, to Rachelle’s “CPT” which wouldn’t give audiences a break from laughter, to sophomore cinematic arts, film and television production student Nobert Otieno’s romance “Caramel,” which explores the different ways that lovers suffer which left audiences emotional, attendees got to experience a wide variety of Black stories.

The abundance of diverse ideas and varied narrative storytelling techniques were on full display in Friday’s two-hour showcase. The polish of these films was top-notch, but it was evident that filmmakers put more than just time into these projects: They poured their hearts into these films. 

Graduate cinematic arts, film and television production student Jehan Patterson’s “Many Thousands Lost,” a short film about a young girl who realizes that her father isn’t away from home on a spy mission but on death row, was a highlight among audiences, garnering some of the loudest applause of the night.

In a Q&A panel after the showcase, Patterson touched on the personal connection to his film and what he wanted it to communicate.

“[The inspiration for] my film primarily came from my Uncle Derek, who had passed away and been incarcerated for most of my early childhood. And my friend came up — he passed away while I was writing the script for this film. He had also been incarcerated,” Patterson said.

He then discussed the importance of humanizing families that suffer at the hands of the criminal justice system. 

“I really just wanted to give a human face to these people. They’re just not numbers; they’re not just statistics. ” 

Venus Lordson’s “Make a Scene” was another example of a filmmaker drawing from personal experiences as inspiration. It’s a story about an autistic teenage boy who must overcome his anxiety and unsupportive parents to succeed in an audition, and it’s based around her younger brother, who is 12 and has autism. 

“There’s so many underlying experiences with people with disabilities and different ways of interacting with the world that are not spoken for now, especially coming from the Black perspective,” said Lordson, a junior majoring in cinematic arts, film and television production. “I think it’s important to remember that we are Black and we are human, that we have our flaws and other challenges beyond our skin that also need to be tackled, respected and recognized.”

The final film of the showcase was “Where We Go From Here,” by Mikayah Lee, a junior majoring in cinematic arts, film and television production and the current president of AACS. 

This film follows a 16-year-old girl in the aftermath of her mother’s passing, and many of the  protagonist’s emotions in the film mirror those of Lee’s life, whose own mother passed away in 2015.

“Through these 10 years of me going through grief, I [have come to] think that grief is love that must find a new place to go,” Lee said.

For Lee, learning how to re-frame the grieving process was pivotal in her life, and she wanted to communicate that same message to audiences.

“First, we feel like it’s about us, but after you’ve had some time to deal with your grief, after you’ve [gone] through the stages, if you keep finding yourself in this same spot, you can ask yourself, ‘What would they want me to be doing? How would they want me to be living?’”

Looking to the future, Lee said she wanted to see FRO Fest expand its reach, along with other cultural celebrations at USC. 

“I would just pitch to give us more funding, give us a bigger space, and also have more of this. FRO Fest is one event, and it specifically focuses [on] Black filmmakers, but I think that we need to also fund other festivals for other cultures. Maybe there’s also a multicultural festival that we do where we all come together and share our stories.”

As the sun began to set on FRO Fest, and filmmakers and attendees enjoyed food on the patio, the light in the space never dimmed, even if, technically, it was getting dark outside. The energy in the room remained high. The filmmakers were happy, and their peers were even happier for them.

“Somebody walked up to me today and said, ‘I’m gonna see you at the Oscars!’” Lee said. “We are going to be successful.”