The nine short films that premiered Saturday during the Texas Shorts program showcased a variety of powerful emotions and humorous plots.

One of the shortest films, "Tumbleweed!" is a mockumentary of sorts that tells the fictional history of how J. Herbert Tumble discovered the tumbling weed and about one particular tumbleweed that appears not to tumble.

The films ranged in length from 3 to 24 minutes. To qualify for the Texas Shorts program, the director must have lived in Texas at some point. The films do not have to be about Texas, although nearly all were set in the state and featured local talent.

The 24-minute "Magpie," directed by Russell O. Bush, used Austin talent. The film is about Maggie and her estranged father as he attempts to get to know her after she recently got engaged. While Maggie is away at work, her bored father discovers a sex tape she made with her fiance.

Bush said he struggled with the ending, where Maggie unleashes her anger at her father for deserting her at a young age and then her father chokes up the black video tape. He had the two actors write letters to each other in character about what they would want to say. Bush said the ending materialized about four hours before it was shot.

"It's a feeling a sickness and purging of baggage," he said.

Another film shot in the area is "Spark." The film shows how a boy passes his time while waiting for his father to finish a tryst with a woman. The woman's daughter and the boy decide to set off fireworks. Director Annie Silverstein said they had to bring in a specialist for the scene, which involves the fireworks igniting a fire in a field.

"We were nervous, and there was a fire ban at the time," she said.

The film was set on a ranch in Bastrop and was shot just six months before the Labor Day weekend Bastrop fires that destroyed hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of land.

For her short film, "The Gathering Squall," director Hannah Fidell had to seek permission from author Joyce Carol Oates for an adaption of the short story by the same name.

"She told me she had always thought it had cinematic value," Fidell said.

The film focuses on a 14-year-old girl with divorced parents who is sexually assaulted by a classmate. In the end, her father shoots one of the perpetrators to seek justice for his daughter..

The other films were "foolproof," featuring a slacker roommate and his responsible roommate talking over breakfast; "Knife," which was about a man seeking revenge from the greedy oil industry that has stolen his family's land; "The Guessing Game," the story of an 81-year-old man asking his retirement community friends to guess his age and gets a surprise answer; and "What It's Like," by Austinite Matt Naylor who retells the tale of how a writer he knows went to buy magic mushrooms at a retirement home.

Kat Candler, a professor at The University of Texas at Austin, directed "Hellion" about three terror-ridden boys up to no good and what happens when their father comes home. The Georgetown Fire Department provided brief assistance to put out a fire the boys started in their front yard.

The Texas Shorts screens twice more March 13 at 3:30 p.m. at Alamo Lamar, 1120 S. Lamar Blvd., and March 16 at 5 p.m. at Alamo Slaughter, 5701 Slaughter Lane.