The Los Medanos outside amphitheater was open for students and staff for a movie night event hosted by the Los Medanos College Associate Student Senate, Shenanigans club and Office of Student Life Oct. 6.

Attendees gathered around the amphitheater around 5:30, bringing chairs, blankets and friends. A projector and screen had been set up on the concrete stage and security guards were posted around the amphitheater. Club and senate members had also provided free Krispy Kreme donuts, water, candy and popcorn at a table to the side of the amphitheater.

“This was something I’ve been planning for a while,” said LMCAS vice president Natasha Garcia, “This idea was back from spring. I didn’t know how to approach the event. So I spent the whole summer thinking about what we could do.”

One of Garcia’s concerns was the location for the event. The outside amphitheater often goes unused and is neglected. With dirt, twigs and wrappers often littering the concrete steps, the mess makes for a generally uncomfortable place to hang out. Garcia hopes to make more use of the amphitheater with future events.

The movie night event featured two films: the first was a short student-made film and the second was the Tim Burton film, ‘Edward Scissorhands’. The LMCAS and Shenanigan members had decided on the films.

“We were thinking about – ‘Should we do something Halloween-themed or should we just do a random movie?’ and everyone was like ‘Well- it’s October- lets do something Halloween-themed.” Added Garcia, “and everyone voted and the majority of them voted for ‘Edward Scissorhands’.”

Director Tim Burton is well known for his morbidly quirky films. Edward Scissorhands follows the story of a young man with several sharp knives in place of the usual fleshy fingers and how he adapts and integrates himself in civilization after living in isolation for so long.

“I mean, he makes great films- so why not?” said Garcia, “You can’t go wrong with a Tim Burton film.”

The student film that was shown, “Heathens”, was written and directed by LMC theater major Devareay Williams.

“It [the film] is about a guy who loses his wife and kid and it’s pretty much about him dealing with that,” explained Williams, “I originally wrote it for the play festival two semesters ago- and it was made into a movie.”

‘Heathens’ follows a man’s inner turmoil after the loss of his wife and kid. A spirit or a demon of sorts torments him and eventually tricks him into giving up his soul and the soul of two loved ones in exchange for his spouse and child.

Williams had been working on transitioning his screen play into a movie script over a course of two months and had finally been able finish his work and film it within a day. Williams hopes that this will be the beginning of more films to come.

“We pre-planned everything- we had a schedule,” said Mario Castillo who had helped Williams with the cinema photography.

“It was easy. I used my fellow actors from the drama department- my friend helped me with the cinematography, they helped put it all together,” said Williams, “I want to be a film maker. I want to act in theater- but I also would like to direct movies.”

Garcia had been the one to ask Williams if he’d like to feature his film for the movie night. After some deliberation, he agreed.

“At first, I didn’t want people to see my first movie- but in the end- I was like why not?” added Williams. “I hope it’s received positively- and that no one will be outright mean about it.”

Overall, both films had been well received. Upwards of 45 people had filled the amphitheater steps for the event.

“I thought it went pretty well,” said treasurer of Shenanigans Jonathan Ramos, “We would actually like to make more future events