Lunafest celebrates women in film

12 Oct Lunafest celebrates women in film

 The excerpt above is from "The Translator," a film by Sonya Di Renzo, and one of the films selected for the Lunafest from the 600 or so entries the organization receives each year from aspiring women filmmakers. Women make less than 6 percent of the 250 top-grossing films in today's industry, and Lunafest offers a venue for women to break through and get their work seen.

These are not "chick flicks." The films that get selected and screened by Lunafest are created by women, about women and for women, but these are not saccharine romances with corny dialogue and predictable endings. This is cinema at its most powerful: great storytelling with compelling subjects and important messages, and above all, entertaining.

Lunafest is teaming with Ah Haa School for the Arts to present its program locally on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m., and tickets are on sale for $15. The film event is a part of Ah Haa's "Art of Being a Woman" month, and the proceeds raised from the event will support local and national nonprofit groups like the San Miguel Resource Center that are dedicated to women's issues. One hundred percent of the proceeds get distributed; 15 percent goes to the Breast Cancer Fund and the remaining 85 percent goes to nonprofits here in the Telluride community. Since 2000, LUnafest has raised more than $570,000 for worthwhile women's organizations.