LUNAFEST Showcases Up-and-Coming Female Filmmakers

It’s not exactly an alternative fact that women in the filmmaking industry have had a harder time finding employment opportunities than men, let alone a chance to take the director’s chair. However, despite some semblance of lingering misogyny and sexism among studios, sisters are making movies for themselves and are more active behind the camera than ever. So even if a female director can’t get nominated for an Oscar more than once in a while or get the green light to direct a Michael Bay-sized production, the least we can do is support women filmmakers on independent, local levels, you know?

Which is why the LUNAFEST exists. Since 2000, LUNA—the company that makes healthy, nutritious snack bars for women—has sponsored a traveling showcase of short films made by and for women around the world to promote their social causes, reflect their stories and raise money for deserving nonprofits. This year marks the eighth that Orange County has hosted LUNAFEST; the program is sponsored by the Zonta Club of Newport Harbor, which grants scholarships and resources to women working toward a variety of causes, from preventing human trafficking to providing after-school programs and health services.

As is the norm for each city that participates in LUNAFEST, 15 percent of the day’s proceed will go to the Breast Cancer Fund, with the rest funding a cause of the host city’s choice; Zonta Club has chosen to support female film students at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “We just really feel [it’s] important to support and encourage women to get involved [in the film and entertainment industry],” says Hilary Kaye, chairman of the event. “We’re hoping this will promote more women getting into film.”

Nine short films will be screened at the university’s Marion Knott Studios after a party with refreshments, a raffle, a silent auction and mingling. Here’s a look at what films audiences will see:

Another Kind of Girl
In this documentary by Syrian teenager Khaldiya Jibawi, she shares her experience living in a refugee camp and how it has changed her world. It’s Jibawi’s first feature and has already won the Free Press Unlimited Award for its journalistic perspective.

The Honeys and the Bears
Veena Rao’s uplifting documentary captures the tenacious senior ladies who take part in a Harlem-based synchronized-swim team and the empowering freedom they find in the water.

Free to Laugh
Writer/actress/director Lara Everly’s documentary takes a look at the impact of standup comedy on the lives of female inmates post-incarceration.

Family Tale
This animated short was directed by Dr. Patricia Beckmann-Wells, animation professor at Irvine Valley College whose résumé includes authoring books on 3D animation, developing content for Oxygen Media and working as an executive at Dreamworks SKG. Beckmann-Wells’ film follows one family’s triumph and union after a series of misfortunes and adversities.

Partners
A couple’s complicated relationship after their professional and romantic lives become intertwined in this light comedy directed and produced by Joey Ally.

Niñera
Diane Weipert’s short examines the sad but real lives of children of nannies, who are left to fend for themselves while their mothers dote on other children as hired help. (Weipert is also developing a film called Boyle Heights on the life of an immigrant woman after she has been sterilized as part of a eugenics program, based on the very real cases of Mexican-American women’s experiences being sterilized in late 1960s and ’70s Los Angeles.)

Join the Club
Eva Vives’ Sundance-hitting short features Ari Graynor (Whip It, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) in a comedic performance as a New York writer who ponders the decision to join a female networking club to her therapist.

Nkosi Coiffure
Belgian filmmaker Frederike Migom wrote and directed this short drama about a woman who finds refuge in a Congolese hair salon after an argument with her boyfriend.

The Third Dad
Scotland-based filmmaker/artist Theresa Moerman Ib depicts one woman’s quest to understand her deceased father years after their fraught relationship caused her to break all ties.

LUNAFEST Orange at Marion Knott Studios at Chapman University, 326 W. Palm St., Orange; www.lunafest.org. Sat. Preparty, 1:30 p.m.; screenings, 2:45 p.m. $15-$40.

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