For more then a decade, the Advocate Safehouse Project has been bringing the LUNAFEST to Glenwood Springs and the lower Roaring Fork Valley.
“I think it’s really great bringing in the festival, giving that extra element of experience that is not necessarily mainstream,” Community Education Advocate Sarah Buckley said. “They make you think, pulling on an element of something in you.”
Featuring short films, made by, for and about women, the film festival, which was started by the makers of the Luna Bar in 2000, celebrates and showcases women in film.
The first all-women’s film festival travels to 175 cities across the nation, and has been coming to Glenwood Springs for the last 11 years.
Evolving over the years, the festival was originally tied to the breast cancer fund. For the second year, LUNAFEST has partnered with Chicken and Egg Picture, a nonprofit organization which provides mentorship and financial support to female nonfiction filmmakers.
Buckley says organizers started bringing the event to the Valley to help raise money for the Advocate Safehouse Project, and also to bring more arts to the Western Slope.
“The idea of is to have this festival that focuses on the underdog or minority, and that’s also very focused on our movement of trying to help people move forward and feel empowered as well,” Buckley said.
Advocate Safehouse Project provides services to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in Garfield County. The nonprofit organization works to empower and improve survivors lives, through safe housing and education.
“We view it as an everyone issue, because it can happen to everyone and everybody is touched by it in some way,” Buckley added.
The film festival helps promote and empower women, helping them step into realms that are mostly male-dominated.
“It adds a depth to curiousness, with films showing elements of social climate or current concerns, and even individual concerns we can have here in the area,” Buckley said.
Eight short films ranging in length from 3 to 17 minutes will be shown at this year’s festival, held Saturday at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs.
The films include “Flip the Record,” “The Final Show,” “My Immigrant Story,” “War Paint,” “Drummer Girl,” “Are We Good Parents?,” “Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday,” and “Ur Dead To Me.”
With shows traditionally at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Buckley says organizers are excited to add a matinee show at 2:30 p.m. this year.
“We are hoping with the matinee we will be able to reach a broader audience,” Buckley said.
Unlike year’s passed, directors for each individual film recorded an introduction for each film.
“I really like that, this year, the director tells us a little about where they were coming from when they wrote the piece. Hearing their passion on the topic, in their own voice, helps bring and extra level of the film out,” Buckley added
Tickets for the event are $20 in advance and $25 at the door; they can be purchased locally at Treadz in Glenwood Springs, Susan’s Flowers in Carbondale and Midland Art Company in Rifle.
Tickets and more information about LUNAFEST is available at lunafest.org
All the proceeds from the local event go to support Advocate Safehouse Project.
“I think everybody can connect with this film festival in some way or another,” Buckley said. “It has a little bit of something in it for everybody.”