FILM AS COMMUNICATION & MOONDANCE MAY NEWS!
MOONDANCE 2015 CALL-FOR-ENTRIES!
“Mer-folk” Sculpture by Charlotte Zink, of www.zinkmetalart.com
REGULAR SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MAY 30*
For your best chance to win, send in your entry early!
LATE SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JUNE 30*
See our submission categories HERE!
Read our submission guidelines HERE!
Official Entry Form HERE!
Withoutabox for Moondance International Film Festival is now fully active for this season’s call for entries: www.withoutabox.com/login/1240.
Moondance International Film Festival dates:
September 7th & 8th,, 2015
Boulder, Colorado USA
Check out the website for more info:
WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com
NEWS-BLOG: www.moondancefilmfestival.com/blog
EMAIL: [email protected]
As of today, Moondance’s LinkedIn.com account has 7,800+ connections; our Stage32.com has 2,600+ connections, & our Facebook.com page has had 838 “likes” just in the past week alone, by friends of Moondance from 48 different countries! This very popular & well-read news-blog has an 80% open rate & a 50% click-thru rate, which is a blog “phenomenon”, according to WordPress.
THE MOONDANCE: HOW DO WE DO IT?
OUR NOT-SO-SECRET RECIPE: We start with the magic of specially-selected fresh ingredients, lots of dedication, add a generous shake of creativity, stir in a whole load of know-how & international flavors, spice it up with the latest innovations, prepare a delightful table full of enlightenment and entertainment, and sprinkle on a big handful of love & inspiration. Et voila! There you have the one and only Moondance International Film Festival, one of the most inspiring, vibrant, productive and user-friendly, organic and all-natural cinema events in the world, and which is not to be missed.
We bring to the best table in the house decades of experience and success, into which we have liberally poured a delicious spread of top-quality indie films gathered from around the world, and a productive bunch of user-friendly networking opportunities for dessert. So, come on in, have a seat and enjoy. It’s a tasty (non-GMO) formula that’s been working beautifully we opened our doors in 1999!
FILM AS COMMUNICATION
Living in the 21st Century is to engage in the consumption, production, and distribution of sounds, images, and information, that enables creative talents and audiences to realize and gain a more sophisticated and contemporary understanding of media – defined as the multiple channels, technologies, and interfaces through which information, ideas, and emotions are stored, shared, and reciprocated – and the ways in which that plethora of media shape our understanding of the world and our ability to act in it, for the common good, to make it a better place, as well as to promote a heightened ability to analyze, contextualize, create and use all forms of media, and emerging trends affecting the traditional media distribution channels, as a vital exercise in creative expression and positive change through entertainment mediums.
Films screened at Moondance are entertaining and uniquely distinguished by our focus on the relations between media and social justice, and how media is inextricably linked to questions of power, rights, human development, peace, national and international social and environmental issues, creative expression, entertainment, collaboration, self-determination and powerful calls for action. And films sell popcorn, which is a very lucrative and amazingly profitable product for the movie houses!
Directed by Iara Lee*
Cinematography/Editing by Jawad Sharif
www.collectionpicture.stockmd.net
Watch this 3-minute trailer, shot in stunning northern Pakistan, about the plight of the unsung heroes, the indigenous porters of majestic K2, the earth’s second-highest peak. In 2008, a tragic disaster on K2 claimed the lives of 11 mountaineers. In K2 AND THE INVISIBLE FOOTMEN, filmmaker Iara Lee and her team chronicle the lives of those who make possible ascents of the world’s tallest mountains, including both Pakistani porters and Nepalese sherpas. The film also follows the first official all-Pakistani climbing team, made up of former porters. This team successfully summited in 2014, on the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of the mountain. Amid breathtaking scenery, the film depicts the everyday sacrifices of porters and the courage of those indigenous climbers who choose to return to scale K2 in spite of past tragedies. In their striving to perfect their craft, these mountaineers provide a fresh look into the cultures and national traditions of Pakistan, a country typically portrayed in the foreign media as merely a land of conflict and sectarian strife.
MOONDANCE RECOMMENDS:
- Cultures of Resistance.org is the outreach website of the Cultures of Resistance Network, which aims to promote and support organizations, activists, and artists who seek a more peaceful, just, and democratic world. http://www.culturesofresistance.org
Collaborating with innovative and dedicated artists working to unleash the power of the moving image.
Promoting the universal language of music as a cultural bridge.
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So you think you’ve had a hard, uphill day? Watch this incredible & inspirational short video, “The Ridge”, beautifully filmed on the Isle of Skye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ_IQS3VKjA
Cut Media, www.cutmedia.com Danny Macaskill
“You always tug at our hearts with your films from Moondance. What a ride!” ~ Terry Porter, literary & music agent, film producer
“Breath-taking!” ~ Arthur Kanegis, award-winning film producer, director & screenwriter
BUD LIGHT BOYCOTT?
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By STEPHANIE STROMAPRIL 28, 2015
A new label on some bottles of Bud Light, one of the brands owned by the beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, is falling flat among women, a demographic group the industry has been desperately courting in hopes of jump-starting flagging sales of suds. In a continuation of its “Up for Whatever” campaign, a wide blue band low on the label says, “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.” Protests quickly erupted in social media, criticizing what was perceived as perhaps not the best marketing language in the midst of public outcry over date rape on college campuses.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By TRIPP MICKLE April 29,
At Bud Light, Plenty of ‘Yes’ Went Into the ‘No’ Label. A controversial Bud Light label went through at least five layers of approval before it landed on the front of beer bottles and sparked a social-media storm among consumers concerned it encouraged date rape.
SALON
Rush Limbaugh, furious that Bud Light dropped offensive slogan — claims “rape culture” is a “concoction of the Left” Rush Limbaugh insisted yesterday that the response to Bud Light’s infelicitous new slogan — “the perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night” — was overblown because “there’s no such thing as ‘rape culture’ in America.” “It’s a myth! Like so much of liberalism!”
www.budlight.com/OfficialSite
“We Want to Apologize For Our Bottle Message, It Clearly Missed the Mark…”
STATEMENT FROM A MOONDANCE FILMMAKER:
My name is Miho Aida. I am an adult immigrant from Japan, environmental educator and filmmaker. My cultural lens as a woman of color enables me to see a lack of environmental media created by, for and about women of color. Mainstream environmental movement often fails to include people of color, especially indigenous people as part of our landscape. Recognizing this reality, I felt compelled to tell the Gwich’in women’s story.
www.matricien.org
I made a contact with Sarah James, the spokesperson of the Gwich’in and the Goldman Environmental Prize recipient. She told me that I could come visit and interview her. I arrived her village in the Arctic, with a plan to create a 3 minutes video of her interview. After spending two weeks with Sarah James, she asked if I would join the Gwich’in gathering and interview other women to create a film. That wasn’t my plan because I had no funding, proper equipment or former trainings in filmmaking. All I had was Flip Video Camera, MacBook and iMovie. But I said, “Yes,” and that is how this award-winning film came to be.
I said “Yes” to Sarah because I want to live a life that honors my name and birth-date. My name in Japanese means a protector of people, culture and environment. My birth-date is when our government officially declared Women’s Equality Day. I aspire to live a life that honors my name and birth-date by creating a culture that gives voice to girls and women of color and empower them to make a difference. Your mission, values and goals are well aligned with the faces and messages that my film shares with the world.
SOME THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:
“Pier Fishing” by Ivey Hayes
“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, and a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” ~ quote in “The Price of Life” article by Ariel Levy, The New Yorker magazine, April 13, 2015
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Colorado mountains range & columbines, state flower
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth will find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~ Rachel Carson
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“The circumstances of our lives actually matter less to our happiness than the sense of control we feel over our lives.” ~ Rory Sutherland
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africansweetheart.blogspot.com
“True bravery is shown by performing without witnesses that which one is capable of doing before all the world.” ~ La Rouchefoulcauld
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“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living.” ~ Joseph Campbell
BE THE LIGHTHOUSE!
(A parable on arrogance, author unknown)
In the darkest part of the night, a ship’s captain cautiously piloted his battleship through the fog-shrouded waters. With straining eyes he scanned the hazy darkness, searching for dangers lurking just out of sight. Then his worst fears were realized when he saw a bright light straight ahead. It appeared to be a vessel on a collision course with his ship. To avert disaster he quickly radioed the oncoming vessel. “This is Captain Jeremiah Smith,” his voice crackled over the radio. “Please alter your course 10 degrees south! Over.”
To the captain’s amazement, the foggy image did not move. Instead, he heard back on the radio, “Captain Smith. This is Private Thomas Johnson. Please alter your course 10 degrees north! Over.” Appalled at the audacity of the message, the captain shouted back over the radio, “Private Johnson, this is Captain Smith, and I order you to immediately alter your course 10 degree south! Over.”
A second time the oncoming light did not budge. “With all due respect Captain Smith,” came the private’s voice again, “I order you to alter your course immediately 10 degrees north! Over.” Angered and frustrated that this impudent sailor would endanger the lives of his crew, the captain growled back over the radio, “Private Johnson. I can have you court-martialed for this! For the last time, I command you, on the authority of the United States government, to alter your course 10 degrees to the South! I am a battleship!”
The private’s final transmission was chilling: “Captain Smith, sir. Once again, and with all due respect, I command you to alter your course! I AM A LIGHTHOUSE!”
Please forward this news-blog to your creative artist colleagues!
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?
WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com
BLOG: www.moondancefilmfestival.com/blog
No trees or natural habitats were harmed in the creation of this news-blog!
