The International Cannes Film Festival in France, the world's most famous gathering of the cinema world, will be welcoming a short film written and directed by former Santa Monica College student Dustin Brown and produced by SMC's Film 33 production course. Cannes features both major premieres by famous directors such as Ridley Scott and Wong Kar Wai as well as...

Today we are living through an age of pure spectacle at the movies. Here comes Darren Aronofsky, director of the acclaimed psychological ballet drama "Black Swan," to prove that you can still use $130 million to make something with soul, intense vision and drama. His "Noah" is a grand epic and a film that is more than just a retelling...

She sat quietly, lightly strumming her fingers on her knee to a silent melody, patiently awaiting her performance, gazing adoringly at a student playing guitar. And then Professor Parnell called her name. It was her time. She rose gracefully out of her seat and approached the classroom’s center stage in an elegant blue and black suit. Looking up at her...

Music has the unique power to evoke deep emotions and can inspire in ways that no other art form is quite capable of. As such, great works are to be cherished and their composers should be lofted to stations of great admiration. Sadly, in 1930's Nazi Germany, the opposite ideal was being cultivated. Many great Jewish-German composers of the time...

Who knew that Santa Monica College's running track also doubled as a training ground for aspiring Hollywood heart throbs preparing to battle machines from outer space? That and more were a few of the revelations that emerged during a phone conference interview with Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor, the two latest additions to the ongoing "Transformers" franchise whose latest incarnation...

With the enormous success of young adult movies such as “Twilight” and “The Hunger Games” dominating the movie industry, it is not surprising that Veronica Roth's best-selling trilogy of novels, “Divergent,” are now being adapted into the latest franchise. Like "Hunger Games" it is a dystopian vision of a near future tailor-made for high school and early college-age audiences. The...

On Friday, Pole World News held its inaugural awards banquet at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center. The fifth floor was turned into a low-lit banquet of aerial acrobatics mixed with lustful fantasies. The awards were part of a broader campaign to bring a new level of awareness and respectability to an activity usually associated with...

On Sunday some of Santa Monica's brightest young musical talents inspired loud applause and cheers at The Broad Stage during a special concert presentation headed by the Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra. The concert was presented in association with the Westside Music Association and the Music Teachers Association Santa Monica Bay Branch and featured students from Crossroads and Santa Monica...

Salvador Carrasco is walking along the west side of campus heading towards Pearl Street to loop around to his office in the Letters and Science building. He's about to launch into the story of his decision to become a professional filmmaker, but first he has to get rid of a package. He weaves through the construction maze alongside the Math...

With chords of Southern comfort and ache, Apache Relay took over The Roxy on Thursday night. The boys had come all the way from Tennessee to perform their brand of rock on the Sunset Strip, that all important spot where a band can be judged worthy or unwanted. But their sound is raw and driven, full of heart and memories....