If you have $5

Pocket it and learn how to make a movie. Tonight at 7, you can go to Funger Hall to attend a panel discussion, “Film Your Issue,” where you can learn about an international competition that invites young people to create digital shorts about issues that are relevant to them. Following the discussion, there will be a free screening of “Children of Men.”

If you have $10

Get to U Street for dance party fun tonight. DC9 is hosting the first of a monthly series called Crowd Control, where you can shake it to local products hardcore, go-go and Baltimore club music, as well as more familiar hip-hop, dancehall and electro. Local rapper Wale will make an appearance, and the event is being organized partly by GW alum Ris Richards. The event is 21+, and entry is only $6.

If you have $20

Borrow $6, and go to the opening night of the DC Independent Film Festival tonight at UDC at 4200 Connecticut Ave, N.W. Show up at 6 for pre-reception cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, attend the opening ceremony and tribute to Academy Award Winning producer John Daly (“Platoon,” “The Last Emperor,” “Terminator”) at 7 and get dessert at 9.