The city of Oxnard hosted its 9th annual film festival the week of Sept. 23.The festival’s opening night was on Thursday September 14 with the film “Quality of Life” by director Benjamin Morgan. A film about the underground graffiti world of San Francisco. “Quality of Life” covered vast subject matters such as, migration issues and life in jail. The festival also featured various romantic and comedy shorts. An assortment of teen films from various neighboring colleges and universities were featured at Oxnard College the day before the festival’s closing. Most clips were under 15 minutes and had intriguing titles such as “Cheat Death’s Kiss”, “No Identity” and “Eternal High”. “I didn’t realize there was so much creativity and talent around us in the younger community,” said Sharon Morales, an Oxnard resident attending the Film Festival. “It’s really refreshing to see students put together a movie with a plot, theme, and great characters, cram it into a 10 minute film and have the same affect on the audience as a full length feature.”On the closing day a film named “Dilemma”, by director Alex Munoz, was presented. This 35 minute film was shot at the David Gonzalez Camp, a youth probation camp in California. The director gave the inmates a three hour session on how to operate the camera and left them to create their own masterpiece. The story line was of a young African-American male named Jamal who is getting ready to be released from prison when the killer of his sister Tamika checks into the camp. The main character struggles with thoughts of murder, hatred and disgust with the presence of his sister’s murderer. Jamal’s internal struggles with the images of his dying sister laying on the snow as a result of a drive by gang shooting haunt him until the advice of another inmate penetrates his actions “It’s better to love in Tamika’s name then to kill in her name.”The Oxnard Film Festival was a success this year but hopes to open its doors to more people in the upcoming years. The festival expands as time progresses and they urge more submissions regularly. For more information visit www.oxnardfilmfest.com