The CNU Women’s Film Festival is co-sponsored by the Women’s and Gender Studies and the Film Studies Programs at Christopher Newport University. Professors Roberta Rosenberg (Women’s and Gender Studies) and Professor John Nichols (Film Studies) are the Directors of the 2008-2009 Festival. All films will take place at the Music and Theater Hall, the Ferguson Center for the Arts on the campus of Christopher Newport University at 7:00 pm. All POV documentaries are free of charge and open to the entire community. Lunafest tickets will be $3.00 with the entire funds going to Breast Cancer research and other women’s organizations.
All the films have been provided free of charge by POV and LUNA.*

Fall Semester 2008

In the Family, by Joanna Rudnick
• September 18, 2008 at 7pm, Music and Theater Hall, Ferguson Center

Introduced by Professor Ronnie Cohen, Luter School of Business.
How much would you sacrifice to survive? When Chicago filmmaker Joanna Rudnick tested positive for the "breast cancer gene" at age 27, she knew the information could save her life. She also knew she was not only confronting mortality at an early age, but would have to make heart-wrenching decisions about the life that lay ahead of her. Should she take the irreversible preventive step of having her breasts and ovaries removed, or risk developing cancer? What would happen to her romantic life, her hopes for a family? IN THE FAMILY documents Rudnick's efforts to reach out to other women while facing her deepest fears.

Lunafest: Short Films By, For, About Women
• October 23, 2008 at 7 pm, Music and Theater Hall, Ferguson Center
Introduced by Professors Roberta Rosenberg and John Nichols, Directors of the Women’s and Gender Studies and the Film Studies Programs.
Filled with stories of reflection and whimsy, hope and humor, grace and perseverance, LUNAFEST films are renowned for celebrating the talents and stories of women. Our films include many off the traditional festival circuit. Collectively, LUNAFEST films captivate audiences, compel dialogue and arm those who participate with both the knowledge and the motivation to make a difference in their communities.
LUNAFEST’S films have won industry awards and audience accolades, and the films selected for 2008-09 LUNAFEST share this brilliance. From quirky animation to touching documentaries, the selected films are incredibly diverse in both style and subject matter, united by a common thread of exceptional storytelling by, for, and about women.

What I Want My Words to Do to You,
by Madeleine Gavin, Judith Katz, and Gary Sunshine
• November 6, 2008 at 7 pm, Music and Theater Hall, Ferguson Center
Introduced by Professor Stephanie Bardwell, Chair of Management and Marketing, Luter School of Business.
"What I Want My Words To Do To You" offers an unprecedented look into the minds and hearts of the women inmates of New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. The film goes inside a writing workshop led by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, consisting of 15 women, most of whom were convicted of murder. Through a series of exercises and discussions, the women delve into their pasts and explore the nature of their crimes and the extent of their own culpability. The film culminates in an emotionally charged prison performance of the women's writing by acclaimed actors Mary Alice, Glenn Close, Hazelle Goodman, Rosie Perez and Marisa Tomei.


Spring Semester 2009

No More Tears Siste\r, by Helene Klodawsky
• February 5, 2009 at 7 pm, Music and Theater Hall, Ferguson Center
Introduced by Professor Linda Waldron, Department of Sociology, Social Work and
Anthropology.
If love is the first inspiration of a social revolutionary, as has sometimes been said, no one better exemplified that idea than Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Love for her people and her newly independent nation, and empathy for the oppressed of Sri Lanka — including women and the poor — led her to risk her middle-class life to join the struggle for equality and justice for all. Love led her to marry across ethnic and class lines. In the face of a brutal government crackdown on her Tamil people, love led her to help the guerrilla Tamil Tigers, the only force seemingly able to defend the people. When she realized the Tigers were more a murderous gang than a revolutionary force, she broke with them, publicly and dangerously. She was killed on September 21, 1989 at the age of 35.

My American Girls: A Dominican Story by Aaron Matthews
• March 19, 2009 at 7pm, Music and Theater Hall, Ferguson Center
Introduced by Professor Deanna Carpenter, Department of Psychology.
In vivid verité detail, MY AMERICAN GIRLS captures the joys and struggles in a year of the lives of the Ortiz family, first-generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic (DR). Matthews' funny and touching film captures the rewards and costs of pursuing the American dream. From hard-working parents, who imagine retiring to their rural homeland, to their American-born daughters, caught between their parent's values and their own, the film encompasses the contradictions of contemporary immigrant life.

True-Hearted Vixens by Mylene Moreno
• April 14, 2009 at 7 pm, Music and Theater Hall, Ferguson Center

Introduced by Professor Michelle Barnello, Department of Government and Public Affairs.
TRUE-HEARTED VIXENS is the story of two players who make the cut for the Women's Professional Football League's (WPFL's) first exhibition tour. Jane Bolin is a political consultant turned linebacker and Kertia 'Moochie' Lofton is a single mother and a professional women's basketball hopeful. The film also documents the challenges the WPFL faces in developing an audience for a sport that is traditionally regarded as male terrain.

*Documentary films are provided by POV (POINT OF VIEW), an award-winning documentary television series sponsored by the Public Broadcasting Service.
LUNAFEST was established in 2000 by LUNA, the makers of the Whole Nutrition Bar for Women, to simultaneously promote women filmmakers, raise awareness for women’s issues, and support worthy women’s nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. 100 percent of all proceeds are donated to charity. LUNAFEST has grown from a single annual event to more than 100 festivals each season. To date, LUNAFEST has raised over $250,000 for worthwhile women’s organizations, while raising hope and awareness for the stories of women everywhere.

The Women’s and Gender Studies minor at CNU focuses upon questions of gender, giving students the opportunity to explore human relationships within families and communities from an interdisciplinary perspective.The Film Studies minor at CNU offers students a range of interdisciplinary film courses that examine the historical and cultural achievements of motion pictures. Students examine films with attention to their artistic quality, their social impact, and their intersection with other arts, culminating in a well-rounded understanding of the production and reception of this dominant visual art form.

For more information, please contact Professor Roberta Rosenberg at 594-7149.