A C-list talent agent moves through the world all but invisible, until he enters a pay-to-play audition room where desperate actors see him as a beacon of hope. Emily Frances Kaplan directs “The Agent,” a dark character study about an aging and forlorn man in a position of perceived power. It’s a cruel biz on many levels and here we have a particularly depressing form of audition, where actors pay a fee to perform in front of a low-level agent in the hopes of finding representation. In a series of prepared monologues, the actors perform passionately yet unaware of how little hope they have. There is an abundance of short films about the plight of the struggling actor — Kaplan’s film incisively flips the script to illustrate the POV of an agent, a man lacking in spirit, in need of intimacy, connection, and inspiration. -KA. Director: Emily Frances Kaplan. DP: Kenny Suleimanagich. Editor: Emily Frances Kaplan. Producer: Justine Sweetman. Production Designer: Katherine Wittenberg. Cast: James P. Rees, Crystal Wood, Caitlin Durra, Deborah Offner, Delilah Napier, Frances Li, Christopher Tramantana, Christopher Dylan White, Madi Mfuru, David Fierro.