The Women’s Resource Center will shed light on women in the film industry by sponsoring Lunafest, a national traveling film festival “by, for and about women” at Monday’s screening at 7 p.m. at the Bama Theatre.
All proceeds from the event will go toward the WRC to continue free counseling and leadership classes for UA students, faculty and staff.
“It’s really important for us to have events like Lunafest because we are a grant-funded organization,” Tiara Dees, public relations coordinator for the WRC, said. “We depend on grants to keep our services so we are able to provide counseling for victims of sexual assault and sexual violence.”
The University of Alabama is the only site in Alabama to host Lunafest.
“Lunafest started here in 2006, and it’s been a large fundraiser for the WRC,” Puneet Gill, film festival coordinator, said. “It’s a wonderful event where films are selected from a national organization called Lunafest, and we serve as a host site to show these films.”
The film festival will feature nine films, which are five to seven minutes long and are written and created for women and by women to highlight women-centered issues and bring together communities through fundraising.
“I think it’s really important for not only women, but men to come see these movies because 29 percent of people in movies are actually female,” Cyndi Elliot, administrative secretary at the WRC, said. “It’s a women’s film festival, so it’s forging a path and opening up media in terms of diversity. It’s really important to empower women to get into these types of industries just to get them more involved so there’s more diversity.”
In one of the highlighted films, “Blank Canvas,” a woman diagnosed with cancer chooses to use her baldness as a way of self-expression, an unconventional way of sharing her difficult experience with those around her.
“There’s a diversity of films; some are funny, some are more serious, but I think they’re all made very well and all focused on women and support women through their very diverse activity,” Gill said.
Lunafest supports the Breast Cancer Fund and “is dedicated to eliminating the environmental causes of breast cancer,” according to its website. 50 percent of proceeds from the UA event will go toward the Breast Cancer Fund.
“We have a speaker come in and talk about the importance of research,” Gill said. “It’s important to talk about the the environmental causes of breast cancer and exposing that.”
There will also be a silent auction prior to the viewing at 6:30 p.m. There will be a chance to bid on a cinematographer’s starter kit courtesy of Best Buy.
Tickets can be purchased at the Bama Theatre, $12 for students, $18 for faculty and staff, and $20 for regular admission.
“It’s very important [to have these events on campus] because it highlights a diversity of women,” Gill said. “It brings women and men together to discuss issues that surround women. I think any time we can support women, it’s a very important cause.”
