A feeling of paranoia is what drives the plot line of a CSUSM student-made film titled, Agora.

The film’s title is a reference to a disorder where anxiety is triggered by the perception of unsafe situations. Written and directed by junior Ryan Beato, the film delves into the psyche of Thomas, a character played by senior Anthony Capunay. Thomas is a man with agoraphobia, living alone in a house he inherited. Trapped inside his home, he soon realizes that he might not be alone.

“The film was made when I was a student at Palomar and I realized that Anthony was a huge fan of horror films,” said Beato. “He had done the voice over work on another film that was part of the CSUSM Media Fest and it won an award, so we collaborated on this project and began to shoot. The film was originally for an intro to film class and only supposed to be 10 minutes long, but I ended up writing a 27-page script for it and we continued to shoot.”

Beato also stated that CSUSM students, Kenia Ramirez and Eric Zaldvar, also assisted with acting and editing the film.

“We all came to realize that we are passionate about filmmaking,” said Beato. “We decided to make this film on our own time and we’re trying to submit projects to different film festivals and collaborate with artists, so that we might become more well known.”

“Our main focus is to create short films as well as a horror mini series,” said Capunay. “We’re hoping that these projects will open doors for us and that’s why we released this trailer. We want to let people know that it’s a student made film that is visually provocative despite our low budget, so just imagine what we could with investors.”

Beato said their team would like to reach out to CSUSM students who are interested being a part of their film-making experience.

“We want to reach out to anyone at CSUSM that’s passionate about filmmaking and see if they’d like to join our team. We’re trying to collaborate with dedicated and passionate filmmakers and we are starting a new production company called, Prohibition Pictures,” said Beato. “We’re using our education and the school facilities to help grow a business and can’t wait to see where it takes us.”

The film, Agora, is currently in post-production and will be released onto Youtube and Vimeo sometime in December under Prohibition Pictures. In the meantime, viewers can see the trailer for the film by searching “Third Man Films/Agora” on Youtube. If you would like to join the Prohibition Pictures team you can send an email to [email protected].