SMC's "Broken Layers" Heading to Cannes

Promotional poster for the Santa Monica College (SMC) student film "Broken Layers." A short film written and directed by SMC alumni Niccolo Rolim and accepted into the 24th American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Student Showcase. This marks the sixth time an SMC student film has been given this honor. Broken layers will screen at the showcase during the July 2021 Cannes Film Festival. (Photo Courtesy of SMC Film Production Program) — Promotional poster for the Santa Monica College (SMC) student film "Broken Layers." A short film written and directed by SMC alumni Niccolo Rolim and accepted into the 24th American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Student Showcase. This marks the sixth time an SMC student film has been given this honor. Broken layers will screen at the showcase during the July 2021 Cannes Film Festival. *(Photo Courtesy of SMC Film Production Program)*

Santa Monica College's (SMC) student film “Broken Layers” has been accepted into the 2021 American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase and will have an on-site screening at the American Pavilion during the International Cannes Film Festival in July. This is the only film from a U.S. community college to be screened, and the sixth SMC student film to be represented at the prestigious festival’s showcase for emerging filmmakers.

“Broken Layers,” written and directed by SMC alum Niccolo Rolim, tells the story of Rosa, a half-Latina, half-Arab U.S. Marine struggling to reintegrate into civilian life after serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. “Rosa is a character that has this rich culture, but is also at heart an American that has to maintain a respect for her history and heritage,” said Rolim. “To go from something that's so rigid and to end up in L.A., it's just such a different world for her.”

SMC students filmed “Broken Layer’s” during the Spring of 2019 in SMC’s "Making the Short Film" course in which the students train as crew members in the production of a professional film. SMC Film Production Faculty Lead Professor Salvador Carrasco teaches the course and served as executive producer of the film.

“Something our SMC thesis films have in common is that they tend to cross and redefine borders when exploring issues of identity,” said Carrasco. “I encourage my students to pursue with utter conviction whatever sparks their curiosity.”

In the Iraqi Desert, Rosa, a half-Latina, half-Arab U.S. Marine, is the main character in the Santa Monica College (SMC) student film "Broken Layers", a short film written and directed by SMC alumni Niccolo Rolim and accepted into The 24th American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Student Showcase. This marks the sixth time an SMC student film has been given this honor. Broken layers will screen at the showcase during the July 2021 Cannes Film Festival. (Photo Courtesy of SMC Film Production Program)

For Rolim, who majored in both Film Studies and Film production at SMC, any recognition the film receives is a validation of the commendable work ethic of all the students involved in every facet of the production. “The film program is so focused on the collaborative effort of everyone,” he said. “Without everyone working as hard as they did, I don't think the short film would have carried this air of professionalism, this ‘polish’ that is a finished project.”

Another piece of the puzzle of filmmaking is casting the right actor, then directing their performance. Rolim says it was Carrasco who taught him that a director’s main focus should be on working with the actors to convey a clear story. “I was very impressed with Niccolo,” said Rawan Hage, the actress who played Rosa. “His attention to detail. He knew what he wanted.”

Hage, of Lebanese descent, was very excited to speak Arabic in her first leading role. “I connected with her being a first-generation American with all these values that your parents instill within you and then trying to navigate and be your own independent individual.”

Cannes Film Festival 2020 was canceled in the midst of COVID-19, however, this year's festival will also screen the 2020 finalists in July. SMC's fifth film to make an appearance at Cannes will be 2020 finalist, "The Attempt", directed by Daniel Despart, a student of Zapotec descent inspired by a true story set around the Armenian Genocide.

Both “The Attempt” and “Broken Layers” exemplify the high level of craft students are learning in the film program to produce impactful stories told through the lens of the diverse and multicultural community unique to SMC.