Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alumnus Samuel Muñoz ’99, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting, is featured in the award-winning short film Broken and Outcast, now making the rounds of the festival circuit. Directed, written, and edited by Columbia College Chicago alumnus Jak Gavriel ’98, a graduate of the college’s film program, the film recently won an Honorable Mention Gold Award at the 2017 L.A. Neo Noir Novel, Film & Script Festival. It also won a REMI Award at the 50th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in the category of “Historical Drama Shorts.” And it received an Award of Recognition from the 2017 Best Shorts International Online Film Festival for its handling of disability issues.

Broken and Outcast concerns a young man, disenfranchised and on the fringes of society, who seeks recognition in a bare knuckle fight against a prominent boxer, “Mendoza the Jew,” who is played by Gavriel. Muñoz plays a fighter called “The Wicked” and is also the film’s stunt coordinator. “He was a dynamic presence on the set,” says Gavriel of Muñoz, “the kind that projects authority, but in a humble laid back way. He made people feel both comfortable and confident, bringing out the best in them.”

Gavriel and Muñoz previously collaborated on the short film 53:1.

Broken and Outcast will have its Chicago premiere on July 1 at the Windy City International Film Festival, where it is an official selection.

Here’s the film: