Friday, April 19, 2013

The Voice - News - LUNAFEST showcases films about women's ...

By: Joseph Fisher, Senior Editor

LUNAFEST, a national short-film festival, came to Bloomsburg earlier this week to showcase women?s filmmaking and raise money for the Breast Cancer Fund.??

Nine short films, which were directed by women, made for women and about women were shown on Sunday evening.

LUNA, the maker of a nutrition bar company, started LUNAFEST in 2000 to showcase women filmmakers and to bring attention to women?s issues.

The films ranged from three minutes to 20 minutes in length and a common thread connected them all: promoting women and showing the different events that unfold throughout a woman?s life. ?

Carla Fuentes Rodda, junior, and Devon Chilensky, sophomore, of Women Inspiring Strength and Empowerment (WISE), organized the event here on campus after learning about the program at a leadership conference.

Rodda says she enjoyed the message of ?Flawed,? which was an animation that talked about learning to accept yourself for who you are.

?People could easily relate to that,? says Rodda. ?What society expects from women is very different from reality.?

?Whakatiki: A Spirit Rising,? took the audience into the depressed life of an obese woman who has been controlled by her husband for years. On a trip to a nearby lake, the lady grows tired of being verbally abused and decides to go for a swim, although clearly uncomfortable with her body.

?There are so many women with insecurities,? says Chilensky. ?This lady actually stepped out of her comfort zone ? not a lot of women do.?

Another film, ?Chalk,? profiled two friends going through intense gymnastics training. There are fights over boys, their friendship and their bodies maturing. The film depicts the one young girl going through her first menstrual cycle.

A single mother and a daughter struggling financially was the theme of ?When I Grow Up,? a mini-documentary. It takes you through one day of a mother and daughter selling tacos out the back of their car to make some extra cash. The daughter gets frustrated with her mother because her friends and teachers see her, but she also understands and appreciates what her mom is doing for her.

There were two films about women entrepreneurs: one who started making bikes and the other a photographer. The show ended with a short film titled ?Lunch Date.? It opened with a girl sitting in a restaurant waiting for her boyfriend to arrive, and she is greeted by his 14-year-old brother who is not there to eat. He is on an assignment to dump her.

Another film features a women going through chemotherapy and losing her hair. Instead of falling into a state of depression, the woman turns her head into a blank canvas for self-expression.

All the films were geared at empowering women to think about how they can improve their own life, says Chilensky.?

The event attracted more than 50 people and raised a total of $200.?

Source: http://www.buvoice.com/news/2013/4/18/lunafest-showcases-films-about-womens-issues.html

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