Watch Well
By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 13, 2005 2:57PM
The 4th Annual Lunafest will be dropping into Room 120 of the DePaul University Student Center this Friday. Initially, we read this wrong and thought someone was holding Ludafest, which we imagined would be an evening devoted to the music of Dirty South rapper Ludacris. Sadly, we were mistaken. But this evening should be fun just the same. Lunafest (with-an-N) is a touring festival of short films that are for, or about, women and presented by Luna, the nutrition bar that is strong enough for a man but made for a woman.
It’s also a chance to bring together communities of women and a benefit for worthy organizations. Proceeds from the screenings will go towards The Breast Cancer Fund and the Young Women’s Empowerment Project, which is the local host for Lunafest. The pre-screening reception will offer information on YWEP and feature the work of Beyondmedia, which works for social change by making it possible for women to tell their own stories through media.
So what sort of stories are being told at Lunafest? The films deal with issues faced by women every day like media images (Velvet Tigress), family (Shui Hen), and lingerie-shop owning (A Good Uplift, at left). We’re sort of intrigued by Little Black Boot which sounds a little like the ending of the 80s classic Just One of the Guys. The Cinderella overtones continue with Terri Edda Miller’s Dysenchanted, which imagines a small group therapy session with Cindy, Sleeping Beauty, Goldilocks, and other fairy tale females. The epic-sounding La Milpa would seem to belie its length while Wet Dreams and False Images sounds like the a story about the guy who used to cut our hair as a kid and left Playboys out for you to read while you were waiting.
The pre-screening reception starts at 6 pm with films starting at 7 pm. For all you DePaul students, you can get advance tickets at The Women’s Center or the Women’s and Gender Studies program office between 10 am and 3 pm. The rest of us can get ‘em at the door for $8 or $5 if we’re still carrying around an old student ID.