Short films are always fun to watch. The ninth annual LUNAFEST: Short Films by, for, about Women featured 10 short films on Monday in Hart Chapel.
The presentation was sponsored by Clarion University’s Women and Gender Studies Program.
This was the second year in a row that Clarion hosted this festival.  It cost $3 admission, but filmgoers received free LUNA Bars (varieties of Whole Nutrition Bar for Women) to eat during the screening.

All proceeds from LUNAFEST benefit the Breast Cancer Fund and V-Day’s Spotlight Country.  Eighty-five  percent of the proceeds is donated to different community nonprofit organizations, and 15 percent is donated to the Breast Cancer Fund.

LUNAFEST was created to bring people together through different causes and awareness for women’s issues, to promote women filmmakers and to support women’s nonprofit organizations throughout the United States and Canada.
LUNA established LUNAFEST in 2000.  Each year, LUNAFEST brings about 20,000 women together through watching these award-winning films.
The night started off with Carly Masiroff introducing LUNAFEST and telling the audience a couple facts about LUNAFEST and introducing the short films.  The films ran from one minute to 19 minutes in length.
The first one, “A Summer Rain,” was about a little girl from Israel who moved to the United States with her best friend.
It was hard for her to adjust to American life, but after awhile she made a friend with someone else who was unfamiliar with the American life.
Another film was called “Plastic.”  It was about a young woman getting ready for a date. When she looked in the mirror, she was able to change herself just like the girl in the magazine she was looking at.
But, then she realized that the best way to look is how you really are.
“Roz (and Joshua)” was the third film.  It was about how a woman separated from her son when he was only a couple months old.  After 12 years, she is able to see her son three times a week.  She works hard and hopes that one day soon she will be able to be with her son all the time.
The next one was called “Monday Before Thanksgiving.”  It was about a woman who lost her mother, and in the course of a year she felt like she lost everything.
She thought that she needed a man to make her happy, but in the end she realized that she makes herself happy and life is great.
A clip called “DIY: Emancipation 101,” was about women and riding bicycles. Other films included: “The Kinda Sutra,” which featured people talking about the ways that people told them babies were formed;   “A Vida Politica,” the story of a Brazilian hairstylist who believes beauty a form of activism; “Anjali,” the story of a girl who saw her father betray her mother; “ Omelette,”  a film about a mother trying to deal with the rise of inflation in the community.
The last short film was called “The McCombie Way.” This short film was about an old woman who lives in the middle of the desert and works hard every day.
Even though she is old, she still keeps her head up and is able to inspire young people and to convince them that they can do whatever they put their minds to.
For more information about LUNA or LUNAFEST, visit lunafest.org.