- "Cost of Living": Filmmaker Larry LaFond's bizarre comedy gives audiences a glimpse of the comic side of climate change. In the near future, the planet is devastated by rising oceans and the death of species, causing two men and a woman to struggle to peacefully exist with each other in a tiny Pittsburg apartment.

- "Furtissimo": In this hilarious animated film made by Jacob Cementina, a cat named Fluffy dreams of being an opera diva but must contend with his fellow felines who are into creating a jazz ensemble. The film's computer-generated images are a subtle tribute to the cartoon artistry of Chuck Jones who brought animals to celluloid life.

- "The Road": Owen Thomas created a short film about karma. The story explores how a chain reaction of good deeds can be started by the simplest of actions - in this case, inserting a coin in a stranger's parking meter to prevent a ticket. The unexpected twist at the end involving duct tape will definitely gain a chuckle out of people with a perverse sense of humor.

- "True Beauty That Night": Peter Besson's unusual romance story is beautifully filmed and the performers create wonderfully eccentric characters. The film offers an O'Henry ending that will leave audiences wondering what crazy actions people might take when they fall in love.

- "The Visited": Filmmaker James Caballero has created a low-budget science-fiction horror flick that draws viewers into a strange story about a nerdy writer who finds himself possessed by a murderous alien entity. Caballero uses off-focus cinematography to turn bookshelves in a university library into an evil maze haunted by disturbing images. The acting can sometimes be stiff and the dialogue is often unrealistic. But the shocking twist in the last second of the movie will leave hearts pounding.

- "Mugs": This four-minute film experiment by Ronnie Cramer is simple in concept but fascinating to watch because it shows the seedier side of the rich and famous. One hundred police mug shots - including Mel Gibson, O.J. Simpson, and Bill Gates - morph in a continuous image-stream set to pounding music.

- "Land Gewinnen (Gaining Ground)": This 21-minute film was made by Marc Brummund at the prestigious Hamburg Media School. It is by far the best-crafted short film in this year's PJFF lineup. The story focuses on an unmarried Ukrainian couple living illegally in Germany who must deal with the anxiety of being deported if they enroll their young son Mischa in public school. This emotionally-charged story puts a human perspective on the issues illegal immigrants daily face in living in a society where they must keep their true identities secret.

- "The Peony Pavilion": In this animated short by Zian Liu based on a well-loved Chinese fairy tale by the Ming Dynasty playwright Tang Xianzu, a young woman falls in love with a scholar she meets in a dream. The film is well-worth seeing for the lyrical qualities of the drawings as well as the sensuous traditional Chinese music.

- "Shadow.Net": John V. Knowles's science-fiction flick takes viewers into the strange world of online movie piracy where nothing is what it seems and no one should be trusted. The 20-minute film is top-heavy with too much exposition at the beginning. But once the real story gets started, the audience meets an assortment of fascinating characters that might have stepped out of a Dashiell Hammett novel if that mystery writer put his pen to modern sci-fi.

- "Point of Entry": This 27-minute documentary by Zeus Quijano, Jr., depicts the struggles of a young illegal immigrant in the United States dreaming of financially helping his struggling family in Mexico. The blatantly stark cinematography captures the social and economic challenges of two nations divided by an ugly border fence.

Martin Cheek Marty Cheek is the author of 'The Silicon Valley Handbook.' His column appears every other Friday. You can reach him at martych@gte.net.