lunafest

Last night, I went with my English friend, Cat, to Lunafest. It's a short film festival by, about, and for women. We had a blast....Good films, and a goodie bag, who doesn't love that? Here's a quick look at the films we saw:

MANN KE MA

This was the first film that kicked off Lunafest. It was a 5 minute film about a semi truck driving Indian woman. Apparently, it wasn't until 2003 that women in India where allowed to have commercial drivers licenses.

I liked the idea of it. Women can and should be able to do any job under the sun. But for some reason, I really disliked the film in the end. It basically was five minutes of women singing and dancing on a semi truck...........

PLUM FLOWER

Thankfully this film followed the truck driving music video. It was a beautifully sad tale of girl babies born in china, and what their parents do to get rid of them. Obviously, it was a little hard to watch, but I think it's an important piece for people to see. I knew that this happened at one time, but I had no idea that this was still going on today.

SLIP OF THE TONGUE

This fast, and fabulous short was made by a local Oakland High School Student. She's only 17 years old! I was really impressed by her film, it was fresh and different, and very inspiring. Apparently she did it for a class, and because of their response from her teacher and peers decided to turn it into some film festivals. She's won twenty awards for the film!

BREACHED

This was one of the longer films in the festival. It was the story of a pregnant woman in Mexico, willing to risk it all to get to the US side of the border to give birth to her child. It's gritty, it's heart wrenching, it's honest.....I liked it very much.

CITY PARADISE

This film was by far too short for my liking. I was so wrapped up in the beautifully illustrated world they gave me, by the end I didn't want to leave! It's the story of moving to a place, in this case the girl moves from Japan to London (bit of a culture shock). It was very very sweet.

TOP OF THE CIRCLE

This film was really interesting. I don't know how to describe it, I liked it, I know that.....Well, it goes through the ramblings of a woman describing the food chain, the death of her gerbil, the death of her mother, and of course, bacon bits.


DEAR TALULA

The longest, and most emotional film of the night was, "Dear Talula." filmmaker Lori Benson is told that she has breast cancer 14 months after the birth of her daughter, Talula. Because both her and her husband are filmmakers she decides to film everything from after the moment she found out. She made it as a "just in case video" for her daughter. This had the entire audience, including Cat and myself, in tears. It was a great film, that everyone should see. I find it amazing and uplifting that a woman put in that position can be as positive as she is. It is a thing to see.

KYLIE GOLDSTEIN- ALL AMERICAN

A brilliant person decided to put this film directly after the last. I think it would be the only thing to bring up a room after hearing that sad sad story. This is Kylie Goldstein, the most spunky, cute kid I've seen in a movie in years. Her parents adopted her in China. She says, "My parents went to China, and then they brought me home."

AGRICULTURAL REPORT

This film closed out the evening. It was a very cute cartoon, about a cow hearing about a foot and mouth break out and not taking it very well..... Funny, funny stuff!

So, there you have it, my night at Lunafest. If you want more info, or see if its coming to your hometown got to: lunafest.