SMC Student Film Gets Special Mention for Best Film Fostering Intercultural Dialogue at 34th Filmschoolfest Munich

Santa Monica College student film Solidarity won the “Prix Interculturel Special Mention” for Best Film Fostering Intercultural Dialogue at the 2014 FILMSCHOOLFEST MUNICH in Germany, held from November 16-22. SMC was the only film school from the United States to receive an award at the festival, one of the most respected student film festivals worldwide. The other two film schools invited this year were UCLA and Chapman University.

“I am very proud of Dustin [Brown] and of SMC’s film program because we are a high-quality, low-cost alternative coherent with SMC’s educational philosophy of universal access,” says Salvador Carrasco, head of SMC’s film production program, who received the award on behalf of Solidarity’s director, former SMC student Dustin Brown.

Solidarity – the first film to come out of SMC’s film production program – has screened at many national and international film festivals including the American Pavilion at Cannes, won Best Dramatic Short at the San Diego Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA Award. It portrays a woman from Mexico and a man from Lithuania who struggle to make a living in Los Angeles without green cards.