Lunafest Comes to Boardman's Art Theater
Boardman's Art Theater proudly presents the Lunafest film festival, beginning April 15, at 2pm. Lunafest, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year as the only national touring festival of films by, for, and about women is a film festival that features a variety of genres, including documentaries and animated shorts. Starting with just eight stops on its inaugural 2001 tour, Lunafest is expected to top 100 markets this year as it celebrates its fifth anniversary. It's produced by LUNA®, the whole nutrition bar for women™, and provides a national platform for emerging women filmmakers to share their stories.
The event is being held as a benefit for the Breast Cancer Fund and Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois, which is the area's oldest and largest reproductive health care provider. Their seven health centers throughout East Central Illinois serve over 14,000 clients each year, ensuring women in our community can receive the safe, responsible reproductive health care that is essential to the empowerment of women and their physical wellbeing.
Tickets are on sale at the Boardman's box office @ 126 West Church st., in downtown Champaign. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for students and seniors.
The Movies:
BACKSEAT BINGO: An animated documentary about the romantic lives of senior citizens Awards: Official Selection Telluride Film Festival, Official Selection AFI Fest, First Prize Animation Magazine Student Award
ONE WEEKEND A MONTH: Meg, a busy single mom receives a phone call that her National Guard unit will be activated for duty in Iraq in two weeks. She struggles to figure out who will take care of her children. Awards: Official Selection Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection AFI Fest
TAHARA: Amina, an Egyptian housewife in Los Angeles under pressure from her mother; she must decide whether to circumcise her daughter or abandon the tradition. Awards: Santa Barbara Int'l FF, Victoria Independent Film festival, DC Independent FF
BLESSING: Maya, home for her brother's graduation, is forced to deal with their often overbearing, sometimes embarrassing mother, Asha, seemingly oblivious to her daughter's feelings. Asha is not without surprises, forcing Maya to rethink her opinion of her mother. Awards: Santa Cruz Film Festival, LA Film Festiva
TWILIGHT: A story about loss, despair and the possibility of redemption, set in the Russian city of St. Petersburg during its strange White Nights, when darkness never falls. A woman, Masha searches fruitlessly, through morgues and down alleys, for a daughter who disappeared three years previous. Awards: SF Int'l Film Festival, Telluride International Film Festival, Princess Grace Foundation's Cary Grant Award
PERFECTION: From infancy, an Asian American woman learns the game of perfection. But if your goal is perfection, will the game ever end? Milton Bradley's game Perfection mirrors an Asian American woman's struggle to achieve success and her parent's approval. Ultimately she must decide whether to end the game. Awards: LA Film Festival, San Francisco Int'l Asian America FF, Seattle Int'l FF, Vancouver Int'l FF
LAYING DOWN ARMS: The story of two women who forge an unlikely friendship through a mistaken phone call. Janet, a troubled young woman, and Esther, and elderly holocaust survivor, engage in a conversation that transforms both of their lives.
MABEL'S SAGA / LE VOYAGE DE MABELLE: The film blends animation with a lush musical landscape in which Mabel, juggling the demands of work, teenagers and an elderly mother, is confronted with hot flashes and chin hairs. In a touching, funny film without words that celebrates menopause as a natural transition, rather than a medical condition to be feared, Mabel finds herself the unassuming heroine of her own adventure of aging. Awards: Winner- Montreal World Film Festival, Best Short- Atlanta Film Festival