Lunafest film festival promotes awareness of women’s issues

In an effort to support female filmmakers and promote awareness of women’s issues, the Lunafest traveling film festival will be screening nine short films on Feb. 3 at Chapman University in Orange.

Proceeds from the event will be given to select women filmmakers of the school’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

The event will be hosted by the Zonta Club of Newport Harbor. The international organization seeks to empower women through advocacy and service.

“The industry is so male-oriented that it’s really an opportunity to shine a light on women filmmakers,” said Hilary Kaye, member of the local Zonta Club and chair of the event. “We want to support the female students at Chapman University who want to be filmmakers by helping them complete their films.”

Lunafest was created in 2000 as the first all-women traveling film festival by the makers of Clif and Luna nutrition bars. The event is now in more than 175 cities across the country.

“There are 2.13 male short film directors for every one female director, 2.13 male voices to every one female heard, 2.13 male stories to every one not yet told,” the festival’s website stated.

The Zonta Club has hosted the event for the last few years at Chapman. Last year they raised about $13,000 and this year they are aiming for $18,000.

The funds will be allocated as scholarships to select students to finish their thesis films.

While students will be the recipients of the festival’s earnings, the women directors of the films that will be shown are professionals. The nine films span various genres, including comedy, drama and animation.

One of the films, “Toys,” by Amanda Quaid, set in 1930s farm country, presents the story of a young girl who is born to a father who was hoping for a son. Another film, “Jesszilla,” by Emily Sheskin, profiles a 10-year-old female boxer who dreams of fighting professionally.

Anne Edgar, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who has been in the business since 1995, will be showing her movie “Girls Level Up.” Edgar has worked with Fred Roos, Warren Beatty and Sofia Coppola.

Her short documentary follows a young Pakistani woman, Laila Shabir, who grew up in a conservative Muslim neighborhood in the Middle East, as she teaches middle school girls in Silicon Valley to create video games.

“Making this film was an opportunity to watch these girls transform themselves from game fans to game makers,” Edgar said. “If we can empower girls today to express themselves as video game makers and not just consumers, then that’s going to give them an opportunity to influence future culture.

“Having come up through the entertainment industry, I have seen that the business is mainly dominated by men for the last 100 years. My hope is that with video games, it won’t be another 100 years before women begin to have a voice in that medium — a medium that is incredibly significant to our culture.”

If You Go

What: Lunafest women’s film festival

When: Feb. 3, VIP reception with silent auction at 1:30 p.m.; screenings and question-and-answer session with two directors from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Marion Knott Studios at Chapman University at 283 Cypress St., Orange

Cost: $40

Information: lunafest.org/screenings/orange-ca-020318

[email protected]

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot