Students in Laura Vazquez’s class spend hours working on documentaries, but the results only last 10 to 30 minutes.

They will show their short documentaries in a public screening at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday in Diversions Lounge at the Holmes Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Laura Vazquez, assistant professor in the department of communication, teaches COMS 426, advanced field production and post-production. The 22 students in her class have prepared for Sunday’s screening for months.

“It’s really important that my students have the opportunity to show their work in a public setting,” Vazquez said. “The feedback they get can be really beneficial. It’s sort of a premiere for them.”

Ten films with a wide variety of subjects will be shown. One film, “Please Wait to Be Seated,” by Lauren Pollack and Casper Rice, follows the daily life of Sam Williams, a 19-year-old man with cerebral palsy. Another, “Manual Manipulation,” by Matt Holdren, Karen Frost and Joe Yates, examines the social history of masturbation.

Vazquez expects the crowd favorites to be “Manual Manipulation” and “Turn Around: Joe Novak and the Huskies,” a film about the NIU football team.

The student filmmakers began the documentary on masturbation by talking to their parents about the subject.

“The beginning is quite humorous,” Vazquez said.

Vazquez’s students chose their own topics for the documentaries. She added that they make a better piece if they like the subject.

“They spend endless hours looking at the subject, so they’d better enjoy it,” Vazquez said. “Either that, or they end up hating the subject by the end. My students have lived in the editing labs for the last 30 days.”

Four Northern Star employees will show documentaries in Sunday’s screenings: Stephanie Gandsey, Katie Redline, Marcus Leshock and Cory Ohlendorf.