Kent County Girls on the Run (KCGOTR) have teamed up with the Grand Rapids Art Museum to bring the LUNAFEST film festival to Grand Rapids on Friday, April 23. The prestigious traveling film festival showcases woman-made films exploring current women’s issues.
KCGOTR Executive Director Lori Burgess thought it was a perfect pairing. “If you were to boil down Girls on the Run to one thing, our goal is to empower the girls,” Burgess said. “That idea of empowerment is what LUNAFEST is about.
Tickets are $40 and include access to a reception complete with hors d’oeuvres and other refreshments. Following the reception, eight short films will be screened. “What [audiences] can expect is diversity in content and style,” Burgess said. “Some are humorous, some are more poignant, and some are just plain inspiring.” Fifteen percent of the profits from the event benefit the breast cancer research fund; the rest will help fund KCGOTR’s future community projects and programs. For more information, visit kcgotr.org/lunafest.
UICA to Screen Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter
True film buffs obsess over films. They analyze the minuscule details while secretly daydreaming about entering that cinematic world. For the main character in David Zellner’s new film Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter, the film at hand is Fargo and she takes the obsession to a whole new level. The movie follows the titular character Kumiko as she discovers an old VHS copy of Fargo and becomes convinced it’s an enigmatic treasure map for a hefty case of money buried in North Dakota. The cinematically striking, critically acclaimed film screens April 3-16 at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts.
“When I was screening Kumiko, it was so good that I literally had to hit pause more than once just to take a deep breath, sit back and take everything in,” said Nick Hartman, UICA’s film coordinator. “No joke, the film is so good that I had to take breaks from it because I felt so overwhelmed.” For more information, visit uica.org/movies.
