Volume 2, Issue 2
January 24, 2002 - February 6, 2002
At first glance, the Moondance International Film Festival is just another Boulder thing. The festival, which is in its third year and takes place January 24-27, promotes films made by women and films that emphasize non-violent conflict resolution.
What sets Moondance apart, however, is its emphasis on bringing an active film community to Colorado. The four-day event features several workshops and events geared at filmmakers and wannabe film-makers alike. Four screenwriting workshops will be given by noted script consultant Dr. Linda Seger, whose books are on the must-read list for any serious aspiring screenwriter. A "pitch panel" of five Hollywood producers and executives will describe what it's like to take your script to the big boys. You'll even get a two-minute chance to present your project to the panel and be critiqued on your effort (which, as they say, is about four minutes longer than you'd really get in Hollywood). Other presentations include information on storyboarding, acting, directing, marketing, and even dealing with agents.
Of course, the main attraction is still the screenings. Moondance has solidified its strongest lineup ever, including some world-renowned films, and a few that deserve to be but remain undiscovered. The biggest reason to attend this year's festival is the Italian documentary Jung (War) In The Land Of The Mujaheddin (showing 10 pm 1/ 25 at the Boulderado Hotel and 8 pm 1/ 27 at Chautauqua Park's Community House). The film was made from 1999 to 2000, and concerns an Italian doctor who attempts to set up a war hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. While there, he sees the horror of the country's now-famous civil war, talks to several victims and survivors, and is eventually chased out by a sudden attack from the Taliban. One of the most arresting images in the movie comes when the surgeon meets with his old friend Ahmed Shah Massud, the Northern Alliance general who was assassinated days after the 9/11 attack in an attempt to destabilize Taliban opponents. The movie is powerful in its anti-Taliban sentiments and heartbreaking in its repeated question: "Why is nobody in the international community paying attention to this war?" Mandatory education for anyone who wants to know more about the plight of Afghanistan. Equally compelling is the Australian film One Night The Moon by Rachel Perkins and Aanya Whitehead (showing 9 pm 1/25 at the Boulderado Hotel and 7 pm 1/27 at Chautauqua Park's Community House). This is a musical -- actually, nearly an opera, since spoken dialogue is kept to a minimum. Don’t draw parallels to the other recent Australian musical Moulin Rouge, though. One Night The Moon is a musical of stripped reality and simple accompaniment. It portrays a true story from 1932, when a settler and his wife lose their girl after she wanders into the outback one night. They enlist several people to help them search the bush, but reject the services of an Aborigine tracker on racist grounds. The conflict between the two adds solid drama to the story of the search, and the simplicity of the music used to tell the story is entrancing. While the film’s themes -- xenophobia and the music of nature -- are firmly entrenched in Australian culture, its story still resonates for Americans, who inhabit a similarly expansive continent with a similarly tenuous claim to ownership.
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