Five student-made films were screened in the Youth Reel program at the Mill Valley Film Festival in San Rafael on Oct. 6.

The films were chosen out of more than 100 entries by students from all over California as well as Singapore and Kewanee, Ill. for a 90-minute program presented by the California Film Institute.

“It felt very gratifying to see kids’ films in the festival. The Mill Valley Film Festival is of course a very prestigious festival for professional filmmakers, and this is the fourth year films from Harvard-Westlake have been in it,” Visual Arts Department Head Cheri Gaulke said.

The films were produced either by students working independently, as part of Video Art classes at school or in the Summer Film Program, which also included non-Harvard-Westlake students.

Topics ranged from socially conscious consumerism to the complexities of teenagers’ love lives.

“It feels really awesome to have [my film] ‘Bookstore’ in the festival,” Alex Haney said. “I started out acting, and I wasn’t sure if being a filmmaker was the right thing to do, but it was so much fun and being in this festival just really shows how much hard work can pay off.”

Other films that were shown include “A Day” by Jacob Weiss ’13, “Baseline” by Dylen Papazian ‘13, “The Homer” by Alex Thal ’14, “This PSA is Gay” by Miranda Kasher, George Khabbaz and Patric Verrone ’13, and “Learn the Difference” by Rebecca Hutman ’12, Idia Wilson and Adam Yaron ’16.