Screening to Benefit the Breast Cancer Fund and Women’s Empowerment Project

DePaul University will host and co-sponsor the screening of several award-winning women’s film shorts as part of the fourth annual LunaFest, from 7 p.m.to 9:30 p.m. Jan. 14, 2005 in the Student Center, 2250 N. Kenmore Ave., Room 120.

A 6 p.m. reception precedes the screening of seven diverse short films directed/produced and about women. The video works of Beyondmedia, a local alternative media arts group, will be featured at the reception. The festival is produced and co-sponsored by Luna, a food company that produces nutrition bars aimed at women.

Film titles and descriptions are as follows:

“A Good Uplift” – directed and produced by Faye Lederman, is a light-hearted documentary set in a famous lingerie shop on the Lower East Side of New York City. The film shares a day-in-the-life of a Jewish grandmother and her business partner as they do their best to embrace and enhance the shop’s clientele.

“Shui Hen” – directed by Maximillian and produced by Sonya Chi and Eddie Lee, is a coming of age story about a Chinese girl in Hong Kong who was left behind by her parents. She travels to Cuba to be reunited with them after 15 years. Problems arise when her dreams about her future collide with an arranged marriage planned by her father.

“Little Black Book” – directed by Colette Burson, is a contemporary re-telling of Cinderella in which an awkward high school girl goes to the prom alone dressed as a boy and finds her true love. The film was awarded the grand prize at the 2004 Planet Out Film Festival.

“Wet Dreams and False Images” – directed by Jesse Epstein and winner of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award for Short Subject Online, evolves around Dee Dee, a barber and self-proclaimed “booty expert” who covers his wall with magazine cut-outs of women. When Dee Dee is introduced to the art of media manipulation, he is forced to examine beauty in new light.

“Velvet Tigress” – directed and produced by Jen Sachs, is an animated documentary about the 1931Winnie Ruth Judd case, known as the “trunk murderess.” The murder story is told through the eyes of the sensational press of the time.

“La Milpa/The Cornfield” – directed by Patricia Riggen, is the story of Angela, who reminisces about her youth during the Mexican Revolution when myths, sensuality, war and pain were everyday occurrences.

“Dysenchanted” – directed by Terri Edda Miller, this film poses the question: What do Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Goldilocks, Alice, Dorothy and Red Riding Hood have in common, besides the fact that they are all storybook heroines? They are all in need of serious therapy. The film eavesdrops on a private session of this iconic “group.”

Admission to the screening and reception is $5 for students and $8 for the general public. Tickets may be purchased in advance beginning Jan. 3, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at DePaul’s Women’s Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Suite 306 or the university’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program office, 2219 N. Kenmore Ave, 4th floor. Both the center and the program are hosts and co-sponsors of the film screening. Proceeds from the screening will benefit the Breast Cancer Fund and the Young Women’s Empowerment Project, an organization that assists young women whose lives have been negatively affected by street economies.