Boulder’s #1 Film Festival! – Moondance International Film Festival

2016 CALL-FOR-ENTRIES!

~ June 30th DEADLINE FOR LATE ENTRIES! ~

For your best chance to win, send in your entry RIGHT AWAY!

WWW.MOONDANCEFILMFESTIVAL.COM

See our Submission Categories HERE!

(Films, written works & music)

See our Awards Categories HERE!

Entries may be submitted by writers, directors, producers, editors,

cinematographers, composers, actors or distributors.

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We have provided a way for you to submit via mail, our own online submission form above or through WAB or Film Freeway. If you prefer submission by mail please download form above and print out the form below and print out the 2016 MOONDANCE RELEASE FORM, clearly fill in the info required, and enclose a check or money order in US $ for the entry fee (regular: $50 to May 31st, extended: $75 to June 1st- 15th, late: $100 to June 16th – June 30th), plus your submission, and mail or courier it to: MOONDANCE FILM FESTIVAL – 970 9th STREET –BOULDER, CO 80302 USA

Moondance now offers feedback & professional critiques on screenplays, stage plays, and TV pilots that are submitted for the 2016 competition, for only $50! Select the FEEDBACK option on the FilmFreeway entry form, or the Moondance entry form. Meet our professional reader, Jasmine Sahu, at: https://moondancefilmfestival.com/meetouradvisoryboard/

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“Your festival looks great! I love your festival’s mission of celebrating bold and fearless work.” ~ James Raue, filmmaker, UK

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DON’T MISS THESE PLANNED EVENTS AT THE 2016 FILM FESTIVAL:

~September 4th & 5th, Boulder, Colorado, USA~

INDIE FILM SCREENINGS (documentaries, animation, music videos, foreign, feature & short films)
PROFESSIONAL WORKSHOPS FOR FILMMAKERS, WRITERS & COMPOSERS
PRODUCTIVE NETORKING PARTIES & EVENTS DAILY
CELEBRITY APPEARANCE & PHOTO-OPS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
PRIVATE CONSULTATIONS WITH THE PROS
Q&As WITH THE FILM DIRECTORS
AFTER-PARTIES EACH EVENING
GALA AWARDS CEREMONY & BANQUET RECEPTION!

Boulder has been named the official “TREE CITY USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation, for the 32nd year, and is often called The Emerald City, due to all the green trees and vistas of our town’s surrounding green open-spaces natural habitat!

Boulder’s famous Flatirons Peaks & Greenbelt, less than a mile from downtown!

WANT TO HELP OUT DURING THE 2016 FILM FESTIVAL?

See our list of volunteer opportunities & download the sign-up form HERE

Our dedicated volunteers help make this event so successful!

Volunteers can earn free tickets to films & workshops, based on volunteer hours

SUBSCRIBE NOW to the popular Moondance news-blog for info, updates, articles, creative inspiration, & announcements: www. moondancefilmfestival.com/blog

If you’ve already submitted your project to the 2016 competition, & have subscribed to the news-blog, thanks a million!

Check out the website for more info:

WEBSITE: www.moondancefilmfestival.com

EMAIL: director@moondancefilmfestival.com

Our hearts go out to the families, friends, loved ones, the world LGBTQ community, the survivors, and the victims of the terrible, senseless tragedy in Orlando, Florida.

Image by www.pxleyes.com

INSIDER TIPS

3 SIMPLE STEPS TO EFFECTIVE NETWORKING

by Melissa Cassera, Stage32.com blogger

If you’re a screenwriter, producer, actor, film director, etc. then you need to have a “network.” What is a “network,” exactly? It’s the web of relationships that allows you to do the work you love and get paid for it. Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Tolkien and Lewis all understood the value of building a strong professional network. Their careers wouldn’t have flourished in the same way if they’d locked themselves away in their offices, never attending parties, never introducing themselves to influential figures of the day, never forming friendships. They understood that nobody works “alone.” Everyone needs a tribe. It’s up to you to build your tribe, work your connections, and use your storytelling skills to create an online presence that says, “I’m somebody you definitely want to know.” READ MORE:

MOONDANCE BLOG EDITOR’S NOTE:

Attend important film festivals, like Moondance, for productive networking opportunities!

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(VIRTUALLY) EVERYTHING STORY

The response to (Virtually) Everything Story has been INCREDIBLE! Thanks to everyone who has written, sharing how much value they have gotten out of watching the free interviews in the Future of Storytelling Library! These the absolute TOP names in the industry sharing CUTTING EDGE information, which is going to put you years ahead of your competition. This is what storytelling is going to look like in the future! ~ Ken Lee, Michael Wiese Books

Here’s just some of what’s going to be happening & when…

Wednesday, June 15th

John Truby ~ Novels: The Number One Screenwriting Strategy Today: Why Being a Novelist is Your Ticket to Hollywood Success

Michael Hauge ~ Crafting Transformative Characters: Taking Your Characters From Identity to Essence

Friday, June 17th

Jen Grisanti ~ Writing A TV Pilot That Sells: Setting Up The Structure

Carole Kirschner ~ The Unwritten Rules of Hollywood: What They Don’t Teach You in Film School

Sunday, June 19th

Pamela Jaye Smith ~ Creating Our Next Mythologies

Thursday, June 23^rd

Michael Jorgensen ~ Power Narrative: the Secrets of Documentary Storytelling

Friday, June 24^th

Chris Vogler ~ E-Motion Pictures: How to Channel the Power of Emotions in the Body

“YES, I WANT TO REGISTER FOR (VIRTUALLY) EVERYTHING STORY!” CLICK HERE

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT TODAY

LIFE’S LITTLE LEAPS: THE NEW “NO”!

Learn how to banish toxic ‘people-pleasing’ from your life

By Lou Hamilton

A kid who brings an apple to the teacher has a mission. Get the teacher to like him or her and mark his or her grades higher. The manipulation is obvious and we scorn such tactics. And yet as we grow older many of us adopt such people pleasing poses. Not me, you say. But have you ever wanted to avoid conflict or tried to second-guess other people’s behaviours or reactions? Do you have a tendency to give up on your own desires and thoughts in deference to others? Does imagining that someone will get angry change the course of your actions? Is disapproval unbearable?

The trouble is people start to expect it when you hand out ‘yes’ like free candy. Like a drug addict you have to give more and more away to receive less and less appreciation. And the anger, resentment and bitterness grows like a fire-ball in your throat. Nice You on the outside is a thin veneer to the seething pit of snakes spitting venom on the quiet. People-pleasing depletes your energy and your reserves. You begin to feel that you have nothing left to give, but still people keep taking, because you let them.

So you decide enough’s enough. You take a stand. You start to say No. You start to value your time, your space and your self-worth. And what do you gain with your New No? You gain self-respect. You gain time. You gain rest and energy. You gain the ability to say yes to the things that you want to say yes to. You gain self-confidence. You gain the right to be direct and authentic. You gain space to breathe. You gain power over your own destiny. You gain inner strength. You will open the flood gates for your creativity, and when you do that your life will start to flow.

Lou Hamilton is a Creative Coach & she will help you get over your people-pleasing tendencies, so that you can get on with living the life you want. Email for a free consultation Lou@createlab.co.uk

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The benefits of nature-walking, picnicking, hiking, climbing trees, observing wildlife, wildflowers and natural environments, seeing spectacular vistas, running and being out on your own in Nature or with friends or family works in subtle, ways. Such activities help maintain body, mind and spirit, and give a sense of belonging, of being grounded and one with the Earth. It is of huge benefit, enjoyed in no other way, and so, we need to do all we can ensure that these open spaces and unspoiled, native areas will be there for future generations to enjoy, too!

CAN YOU SEE ME?

“Can You See Me?” short documentary film, Lou Hamilton, director, UK

Take a look at this poignant & thought-provoking 10-minute short film by multiple-award-winning Moondance filmmaker, Lou Hamilton, UK (scroll down to 3rd one shown): Can You See Me? 100 West End stars transform London’s Trafalgar Square into a Flashmob aimed at raising awareness about child sex trafficking at: https://createlabproductions.com/films-2/

MOONDANCE SUPPORTS & RECOMMENDS:

GIVE WHALES AND OTHER OCEAN LIFE SOME PEACE AND QUIET!

By Tatiana Schlossberg, New York Times, June 3, 2016

Wild Atlantic dolphins photo by Atmo, Bimini, http://www.WildQuest.com

The ocean is loud: Ship propellers, sonar, oil and gas drilling and other industrial work make sounds, even if, like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, no one can hear it. But marine animals can, and all that noise has been shown to interfere with their behavior, since many of them, from whales to invertebrates, use sound for all kinds of activities, including to communicate, to find food or each other, to avoid predators and to migrate.

And while the ocean was never a quiet place — full of natural rumblings, clickings and chatterings — the problem has grown worse over the last 100 years or so, and significantly increased over the last 50 years in some places, much of it from commercial shipping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This whale and dolphin stranding was proven to be the direct result of sonar abuse.

So the agency, which manages and protects marine life in United States waters, released on Wednesday a draft for a strategy to reduce the effects of ocean noise, and invited public comment. The Ocean Noise Strategy Roadmap draft is an early step in a 10-year plan to quiet the oceans and reduce some of the harmful effects on aquatic species. The public comment period will end July 1, and a more concrete plan will be put in place in the coming months. READ MORE:

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NO OCEAN, NO US!

By Kristen Krumhardt, Guest Opinion, Daily Camera, June 8, 2016

Ph.D. candidate in environmental studies at CU Boulder

Have you thanked the ocean lately? In celebration of World Ocean Day (June 8), I want to remind everyone that, as distant as the ocean may seem, it sustains us and we impact it. Not only does the ocean provide one billion people with protein everyday (90 % of those who live in developing countries and have no alternatives), but also microscopic plants living in the ocean provide more than half of the oxygen we breathe. The ocean contains tremendous biodiversity, both valuable and beautiful. Coral reef ecosystems are especially diverse, providing millions with food, medicine, storm protection, as well as revenue from tourism. The neurological, psychological, and emotional changes that occur when we are near water are scientifically documented.

“We have an enormous impact on the ocean, not only through the physical connection of our watersheds, but also through the interconnectedness of Earth’s ecological systems as a whole,” says Vicki Nichols Goldstein, founder of the Colorado Ocean Coalition. Her motto is, “You don’t have to see the ocean to protect it,” Indeed, runoff from our cities & farms goes directly into streams, rivers, and, ultimately, to the ocean.

Not only are we connected to the ocean via rivers and streams, but also through the atmosphere. We can add “climate change modulator” to the list of services the ocean provides, as it absorbs both heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Thanks to the ocean, the world is cooler than it would otherwise be, given the amount of excess carbon we humans have pumped into the sky through the burning of fossil fuels. As the Global Ocean Commission frames it: “no ocean, no us.” READ MORE: (Excerpt & edit by EE)

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DEFEND THE (SMALL, BUT) MIGHTY KRILL!

Krill are the bees of the seas. Small creatures that play a giant role in our web of life. Without krill, the future would be bleak for Antarctica’s penguins, seals, and whales. But the fish oil industry has it out for krill. They are sucking up krill by the millions from Antarctica’s Southern Ocean, with some nations planning to expand their operations by seven-fold.

You’d think super-food krill would be safe from human interference in the frigid, distant waters around Antarctica. But the most biologically-productive section of the Southern Ocean has seen an 80% drop in krill, likely owing to climate change & the krill industry’s increased catch making a rebound even less likely. Fish oil supplements are surging in popularity. They’ve also contributed to the collapse of forage fish like herring and anchovies in some regions.

The most sustainable option for our oceans & the survival of marine life is to use vegetarian and vegan options — of which there are many.

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SPOTTED DOLPHINS OF THE BAHAMAS!

Video by Conch Salad TV