By Lookout Staff

January 22, 2020 -- A Santa Monica College (SMC) student film will get its world premiere at the school's state-of-the-art Center for Media and Design next month, school officials announced Wednesday.

“Out of Touch”, a short dystopian film co-produced with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Keslow Camera, will be screened at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 1 along with two award-winning student films.

The film -- written and directed by SMC alum Bobby Murphy -- is set in Los Angeles in a near future where "refugees and immigrants live under the shadow of an authoritarian regime," school officials said.

The story centers on "a conservative politician who must put her prejudices aside and take action, lest she lose her daughter forever."

Each semester, the HFPA provides a $15,000 grant to help finance the making of one narrative film project, while Keslow Camera supports the program with pro bono camera and lens packages, school officials said.

Students from the school's Making the Short Film class serve in various capacities as crew, officials said.

Also screened at the premiere are two recent award-winning student productions -- “Once Upon a Woman” and "Hinge."

Shot on location at Calico Ghost Town, “Once Upon a Woman” is a revisionist Western set after the Civil War.

The story takes place in a world where "both cowboys and Indians struggle with personal conflicts against the approach of the railroad and impending doom," school officials said.

The film, directed and co-written by SMC alum Wayne Hodges, has been an official selection at eight regional and international film festivals and has won six awards.

"Hinge," written and directed by SMC student Lisa Mayo and produced by SMC alum Lindsay Eberts, explores the impact of mental illness.

The film tells the story of a mentally unstable man who "develops a fixation on his new neighbors -- a lesbian couple with an idyllic life -- when he stops taking his anti-psychotic medication."

"Hinge, won the Best Student Film Award at the 2019 Prague Independent Film Festival (PIFF) last August and has been a finalist or semi-finalist at five international film festivals.

The film won an award for best score at the Vienna Independent Film Festival, and Mayo won Best Emerging Filmmaker at the Santa Monica International Film Festival.

The premiere will be hosted by SMC Film Program faculty lead Salvador Carrasco, with a Q&A led by SMC alum and Rotten Tomatoes critic Alci Rengifo, this year's recipient of The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) Ruth Batchelor Scholarship.

Those interested in attending the February 1 world premiere should RSVP Carrasco_Salvador@smc.edu.

SMC offers an Associate of Science degree and Certificate of Achievement in Film Production. To learn more, visit smc.edu/filmproduction or email Carrasco_Salvador@smc.edu.

The film program -- as well as the films that come out of it