Watching various shorts at HollyShorts Film Festival can give you a wide range of experience in just a short time. There may be surprises. There may be emotion. There may be social commentary. It is all served up in a smorgasbord of stories.

Selah (22 minutes), directed by Lara Everly, is a road trip with a few twists. Teenaged Selah is determined to show her independence by driving solo from Texas to California to deliver a designer puppy. We can tell right away that she has responsibility issues. The drive is a test of maturity. There is also another reason for this trip, that makes it even more important to her than the money she’s being paid. It’s worth noting that Selah’s name comes from the Psalms where it indicates a bit of pause or time to reflect.

Woman Reclining on Grass (21 minutes), directed by Claudia Doumit, is a comic look at art and value. A family has inherited what might be an unknown masterpiece by a famous artist. They are about to auction it. One of the daughters, with a background in art, has been through many steps to authenticate it. But her sister brings a new boyfriend to dinner, an art critic who can be very acerbic. Will he undermine it all? The film raises questions of what constitutes art (let alone good art), and why some is valuable or not.

Halfrican (5 minutes), directed by Edgar Esteves, is a “ripped-from-the-headlines” story. When a biracial man is arrested by ICE for his social media posts, he finds himself in a cell with various people, all angry at being there. Racism is front and center in the arrests, but those in the cell all have different perspectives on what racism represents for them. And they all have different levels of assumed privilege. The divisions within the cell prevent the group from a united solution to the overall problem.

America (20 minutes), directed by Laura New, is another “ripped-from-the-headlines” story. A single mother is trying to relocate away from an abusive ex. Her teenage son is very dark and sullen. When a school shooting happens at the local school, we may think we know what’s happening, but perhaps not. This film is a cry of grief about the shootings that are way too frequent in American society.

Down the Length (32 minutes), directed by Milo Edwards, is about being lost in pain. A painter who seems to be in the artistic equivalent of writer’s block seeks inspiration from his dreams. Each night he wakes up and records his dream, but when he replays it the next day, he still can’t paint anything. He has a basket full of wadded paper and a drawer full of tapes. Then there is another voice trying to break in. That voice may help him deal with the real pain that is blocking his life.

Karayr (17 minutes), directed by Neo Apelian, is a bit of Arab Futurism. This is a post-apocalyptic story in an imagined future after the use of a biological weapon which destroyed humanity’s cognitive abilities, reducing people to stone age cavemen. There is one man who has survived with his mental abilities intact. When he meets a caveman, he tries to nourish a relationship and teach him about civilization. This is a film built on irony. An example is when the caveman watches the survivor drawing on13 the walls of his cave to make pictures of his family. How far are we really from the animal nature within us?