No Touching

No Touching

Bruce Von Stiers

These days, it seems everyone is looking at their phones all the time. Whether in the car, at restaurants, sporting events and even chambers of Congress, people are constantly looking at their mobile telephone screens.

What if society took things several steps forward with mobile devices? What if the only way you were supposed interact with other people, besides speaking, was through a cell phone or mobile computing device? What if, in the future, touching someone was not allowed, possibly even illegal?

That is kind of the premise behind the sci-fi short film titled The Last Touch. The film was written and directed by Melissa Mars.

The film finds Clea and Cain in bed, each one looking at their phones. They are “liking” things on their phones and chuckling. After a sleep app is utilized, they sync their phones and then go to sleep. You get the impression that this is a normal activity for the couple.

Then the next night something happens that changes the whole dynamic of the couple. Where that incident leads them is complex, interesting and even somewhat scary.

Along with her duties behind the camera, Melissa Mars plays Clea . Besides starring in From Paris with love alongside John Travolta, Melissa has been in films such as Virtual Revolution, and Lifetime's Deadly Delusion. Additionally, to her film making, Melissa is also a noted singer / songwriter.

James Kacey plays Cain. His credits include Ace the Case alongside Susan Sarandon and portraying mobster Joe Bonanno in AMC's The Making of the Mob, NY .

Integral to the plot is an electronic entity known as Sweet Cherry. Monica Blaze Leavitt does the voice of Sweet Cherry. She has been in several short and feature films. The cinematographer for The Last Touch was Yasiv Glaser. He has been a Director of Photography on a few shows, including The Food That Built America. Original music for the film was done by Steve Sholtes with some additional music by Olivier Shultheis.

Although The Last Touch is a dystopian sci-fi film, the future could possibly be something like what is portrayed there. Every day you see people in places; families looking at their phones and not communicating with each other. Couples text each other from different parts of the house instead of going and talking face to face.

So, would it be too far fetched for society to be so driven by electronic devices that intimate human contact is no longer allowed? Maybe or maybe not. But The Last Touch shows how things could be like if that happened.

I liked The Last Touch. Even though it wasn't a very long film, it made a very distinct point. The acting was good, with fluid dialog and actions.

The Last Touch has been featured at several film festivals. It has won the Best Sci-Fi Short award at the Hollywood Blvd Film Festival and both the Kansas City and Minneapolis Cryptcons. It is currently an Official Selections for the 2022 Garden State Film Festival.

If you're interested in learning more about The Last Touch, visit the film's website at https://www.madeinmarsstudios.com/lasttouch/

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