Andy Brodie and Ben Godar have many things in common. Both are natives of Iowa, both are studying film, both created a short film for a course requirement and both had those films selected to be screened at this year’s Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival.

The similarities stop with the filmmakers’ movies, however. Although both are five-minute films, Brodie’s “Round Midnight” and Godar’s “Al Kida” are on opposite sides of the spectrum.

“Round Midnight” is a documentary portrait chronicling the life of long-time Iowa City radio personality, Jim Dougherty. Dougherty, the host of “Jazz and Jim” on WSUI-AM 910, is now retired, but still works at the station on a volunteer basis.

Brodie, who is studying cinema and comparative literature at the University of Iowa, says the film focuses on Dougherty’s life-long passion for radio and captures him at work in WSUI’s studio as well as in his home studio, where he records his shows.

“He used to play radio as a child, got into radio in his teens, worked at the radio station in college at Iowa and then basically his entire life has been devoted to jazz music and radio,” Brodie says.

“Round Midnight” captures Dougherty doing different things around the studio, Brodie says, but mostly the concentration is on his voice and the music — the foundation of any radio station.

“I thought most of the time people don’t see the person who is on the radio,” he says.

“They only hear their voice, and so I play with that a little bit in the film.”

Godar’s film, “Al Kida,” is a short narrative about a man who is trying to deal with the consequences of his name — Al Kida.

“It’s just kind of a few days in his life as he sort of suffers through the stigma and eventually sort of finds a way to deal with it and come to peace with it,” says Godar, an ISU alumnus and graduate student studying screen writing at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

The film is funny and not overly serious, Godar says. The idea came to him while working on a different script.

“It was just kind of a weird free association kind of thing,” he says.

The theme of the film also relates to discrimination, Godar says.

“I kind of saw some parallels with how Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans have been treated sort of post-Sept. 11,” he says.

“They’re stigmatized for something that’s not necessarily any more significant than a name.”

Making five-minute short films, Brodie and Godar say they faced challenges trying to make room for everything they wanted to include.

“You have to just pick the quotes and information that you think is most pertinent and piece it together in some way that makes sense,” Brodie says.

He also says the shorter length was overall a better fit for him.

“Ultimately I’m happy it’s a shorter piece because I think that, especially with documentary films but with any film, the longer a piece gets the more interesting and compelling it really needs to be to carry itself through the entire running time,” Brodie says.

“A short film is like a short story in that way, you know — you can kind of drop in on this person and see a slice of their life.”

What: Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival

Where: Collins Road Theatres, 1462 Twixt Town Road, Marion

When: 6:30 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. Saturday matinee; 2:25 p.m. Saturday evening

Cost: $9 presale admission

Friday evening and Saturday matinee; $12 Saturday evening; $25 for three-session pass; $12, $15, $35 prices at the door