Short Film Festival Coming To Oswego

OSWEGO, IL — The Village of Oswego will host a film festival featuring shorts directed by women. Nine films will play at Lunafest Feb. 3 at Oswego Village Hall. The annual event will help raise money for Mutual Ground, Inc., as well as champion female storytellers.

According to the Lunafest website, there are 2.13 male short-film directors for every one female director, meaning there are 2.13 male voices to every one female heard. Lunafest has partnered with a film nonprofit called Chicken & Egg Pictures to provide mentorship and financial support to female nonfiction filmmakers.

Among the films presented in February is "Girls Level Up" by Anne Edgar, a film about a young Pakistani women who grew up in a conservative Muslim neighborhood in the Middle East helping middle school girls in Silicon Valley realizing their dream of designing their own video game.

"Joy Joy Nails" by Joey Ally: In an upmarket Connecticut strip mall, Korean Sarah manages a Korean-owned nail salon with an ever cheerful, K-pop pumping, manicured iron fist. When Chinese Mia starts training as a manicurist, and looks to be stealing the boss’s son’s affections, Sarah gets her claws out—only to discover the terrible truth under the varnish at JOY JOY NAILS.

"Waiting For Hassana" by Ifunanya Maduka: In 2014, the extremist organization, Boko Haram, kidnapped 276 teenage girls from a town in northeastern Nigeria. WAITING FOR HASSANA is a harrowing first-person account of one girl’s escape from captivity and a heart-wrenching lament for her closest friend Hassana — one of the many girls still unaccounted for.

For more films, check out the Lunafest website.

Mutual Ground, the partnering local organization, is one of the oldest and largest domestic violence and sexual assault service agencies in the state, serving the parts of Kane and all of Kendall County, according to its website.

Light snacks will be served at a reception before the screenings, along with shopping from local crafters and vendors, with a portion of their fees going toward Mutual Ground, too. Lunafest started in 2000, and was the first all-woman travelling film festival. Luna Bar founder Kit Crawford helps produce the festival.

Tickets are $20 (+ $1.99 fee). Doors open at 3 p.m. and the festival goes until 6. Village Hall is located at 100 Parkers Mill. For questions, call email angie@oswegochamber.org.

Image via Lunafest