Moondance promises to dazzle film junkies

Business Report Correspondent

BOULDER ? The coming new year brings more than resolutions. It brings a celebration of the arts.

Opening Friday, Jan. 19, the second annual Moondance International Film Festival presents the works of women writers and film makers in a dazzling display of action features, vitriolic comedy and uncompromising spiritual values.

Festival workshops, seminars and parties will be held at the Broker Inn on Baseline Road, and the films will be screened at the University of Colorado, an exact location still being determined because of the construction at the University Memorial Center.

Elizabeth English, founder and executive director of Moondance International Film Festival, said the three-day festival brought film and screenplay submissions from more than 600 hopefuls, almost twice the number she received for 2000, the inaugural year of the event. “We pick the ones a company like DreamWorks and a director like Steven Spielberg would produce,” English said.

While a showcase of women’s creative talent, the Moondance International Film Festival films and workshops are targeted toward anyone interested in innovative film-making, screenwriting techniques and making the most of auditions. “Men, women and families ? young and old ? will appreciate the film education and variety of features, shorts and documentaries we offer,” English said.

A special screening of animation films from Klasky-Csupo, the team whose personal work includes “The Simpsons,” “Rugrats,” “Edith Ann” and “Real Monsters,” is a highlight of Moondance 2001. Klasky-Csupo has put together a special retrospective of girl-power animation films for families, which also will be of interest to animators and animation writers. Maja Almskou and Benita Versch, principal animators at Klasky-Csupo, will present the screenings and answer questions afterward. They are also offering a Moondance workshop on animation, which will feature some of their work.

The festival is a Friday, Saturday and Sunday event comprised of workshops, seminars and panels in the mornings and afternoons, screenings in the evenings and parties at night. Workshops include tips on all facets of writing screenplays from dialog, humor and emotional impact to getting an agent and pitching projects to producers.

Nearly 80 films will be screened. At press time, a Canadian family drama, entitled “The Dinosaur Hunter,” was one of four feature films scheduled. The others, produced in the United States, are: “Round Numbers,” a comedy about the dowdy wife of Big Al, the Muffler King, meeting her husband’s mistress at a health spa; “The Simian Line,” a tale of four couples experiencing a spooky Halloween night; and “The Testimony of Taliesin Jones,” a modern take of Ibsen’s “The Doll’s House” that won Best Feature Film at the Austin Film Festival. Check screenings schedule for up-to-date information.

In addition, more than 30 short films ranging from character studies to inspirational films and dark comedy cover the gamut of subjects from the pathos of war to a young man’s dependence on his mother. A zany, Gen-X spoof provides the comic relief.

More than 30 documentaries promise to educate film-goers on such subjects as the architecture of mud, the Cannes International Film Festival, Las Vegas weddings and baby-boomer cosmetic surgery.

Finally, a group of animation films explore the travels of a cobblestone from its origin to its final resting place, a hero’s journey dropping from the sky and fire as a symbol of power and life. A selection of favorites from last year’s Moondance International Film Festival will be shown as well.

Moondance encourages and promotes non-violence as a solution to conflict in arts and film. English’s objective is to promote women screenwriters, playwrights and independent film makers by giving them a forum where their work can be viewed and accepted by the powers-that-be in the international film community. She chose the name “Moondance” to offset the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. “At the time I started Moondance, no woman had ever won that festival (Sundance),” she said. This year, Variety reported 40 percent of the winning films at Sundance were made by women, according to English.

All genres and forms of writing and film are accepted at Moondance, including stage plays and short stories. “Every piece of work from the Moondance Festival last year has been sold,” English said.

With the recent announcement that Starz Encore is contributing $5 million to build an international film center in Denver, English is considering whether the future of her film festival lies in Boulder or farther south. “It would be an honor to be part of the new venue,” she said.

A complete list of the program, films, presenters and special events for Moondance 2001 is at www.moondancefilmfestival.com. Call (303) 545-0202.

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