The Zonta Club of Burbank returned LUNAFEST to the Laemmle Theater in NoHo USA. Like last year, LUNAFEST features a program of award-winning short films “by for and about women.” The appreciative audience took a break from their usual, feature-length diet and instead sampled some tasty cinematic tapas:
Granny’s Got Game (10:45 minutes) profiles seven 70-something women who still play winning basketball, aches and pains and bruises be damned.
Flying Anne (21:00 minutes) follows a young girl’s coming-to-terms with Tourette’s Syndrome with the help of supportive adults.
The animated short Sidewalk (4:15 minutes) is one woman’s walk through life with her ever-changing body.
In First Match (15:00 minutes), a young woman prepares for her first coed high school match and contends with her conflicted father.
Sound Shadows (8:00 minutes) helps us appreciate how amazing it is that the ears can become the “eyes” of the blind.
Maria of Many (3:46 minutes): immigrant, domestic worker, activist. Like so many newcomers before her, she’s building a better world for her daughter…and in the process, her daughter’s generation.
Set in a present-day Athens beset with economic hardship, Running Dry (10:00 minutes) shows us a woman with a trickle of euros but a fountain of empathy.
Date With Fate (3:56 minutes) rhymes with mate. Enough said.
Tiny Miny Magic (7:45 minutes) convinces us that snail mail can still be a fast lane to unexpected romance.
Eight of these films had screened at various major film festivals, with Maria of Many premiering at LUNAFEST. Collectively, they deliver more entertainment value than most feature films.
The funds raised through the NoHo LUNAFEST showing will go to support the Breast Cancer Fund and the service projects of the Zonta Club of Burbank. Event chair NICKIE BONNER thanked Charter Business Fiber Solutions, Alisa Cunningham properties and the Burbank Optometric Center for their strong support.
“Zonta International has been working to advance the status of women for nearly a century and in Burbank since 1936,” said GRACE FARENBAUGH, President of the Zonta Club of Burbank. “We help women in the developing world, and we also help women here at home through grants and other programs.”
This year LUNAFEST will travel to over 150 cities and screen in front of an estimated 25,000 people. For more information about LUNAFEST films and the stories behind them, please visit LUNAFEST.org.
