Lunafest is a package of eight short films by, for and about women. One of my media- and public-relations clients, The Yoga Hangout, hosted a screening last weekend.

The event was in the studio used mostly for beginning yoga and flow classes. Most in the audience occupied mats or perched on bolsters as the lights went down.

Tryouts

Lunafest jumps right into an issue of the day with Tryouts, a film that reframes the clash between assimilation and tradition that is playing out in Europe.

Tryouts depoliticizes the debate by moving it to the United States and centering it on a teenage Muslim girl named Nayla who tries out for her high school cheerleading squad knowing that the hijab covering her head isn’t part of the uniform. This reduces the questions to a human level; the various points of view are represented by characters to whom a North American audience can relate.

Nayla goes into her tryout aware that her friend, Clara, already has made the team. The judges realize they’re in a tough spot the moment Nayla enters with her hair covered. When she performs as well as the other girls, they hem and haw while considering their response.

The judges act as though they fear bad press and/or litigation no matter what they decide. Their attempts to show sensitivity come across more as defensive maneuvering. Instead of engaging with Nayla privately, they single her out in front of her peers as though she’s still being judged. Avoiding direct reference to her religion or headwear, they instead ask if her father was okay with her trying out. They point out that male cheerleaders will be touching her during some of the lifts. Nayla’s response: He signed the permission slip. After a few awkward minutes, the judges cite the cheerleaders’ dress code in deciding that Nayla can be on the squad but can’t wear the hijab with her uniform.

Almost immediately, Clara starts acting squirrelly – like she believes she will have to choose either Nayla or cheerleading, and is leaning heavily toward cheerleading.

Back at the family business, it’s immediately clear that Nayla’s father doesn’t wear the pants in the family. In a flipping of stereotypes, he is supportive of Nayla but no match for her domineering, traditional mother. The dialogue establishes that Nayla is pretty much a model teen – good grades, strong work ethic – but to her mother that’s simply expected, not particularly laudable. There is no way she will allow Nayla’s hair to go uncovered.

So Nayla’s dilemma comes down to peer pressure and teenage dreams (assimilation) vs. parental pressure (tradition). Thing is: All of this is pretty predictable. While the plot is resolved by a twist nobody sees coming, the film takes a long time to get there, despite being a short. (At 14 minutes, Tryouts is the longest film in Lunafest.)

Lady Parts

And now, something completely different. Lady Parts is documentary about Lady Parts Automotive Services in Redwood City, Calif. It was my favorite Lunafest film because it is so relatable.

“Customers from all walks of life can relate to feeling intimidated and inferior when dealing with the automotive industry. It feels like you walked into a whole new world. We don’t understand what’s going on, feel stressed out, but at the same time we need our CARS.” ~ Lady Parts website.

Owner Mae de la Calzada was motived while she was growing up by seeing her immigrant single mom ripped off. She became, as she puts it, “a customer who opened my own shop.” Her mission in founding Lady Parts was to provide service in a way that educates and empowers the customer.

Most garages ban clients from the shop area, citing potential liability. Customers end up sitting on an uncomfortable chair near the front desk, coping with the smell of stale coffee and an unwatched TV tuned to the lowest-common-denominator programming.

Lady Parts shows clients being escorted into the work area by mechanics who explain, in layman’s terms, what needs to be done and why. Free wi-fi enables customers to work while they wait; a special play area keeps kids occupied.

The one incongruous thing about the documentary is that the mechanics are men. Near the end, de la Calzada acknowledges that there simply are few women in the auto-repair sector. She basically appeals to qualified female mechanics to seek her out.

Lady Parts covers a lot in only six minutes and made me wish the company had a location in my city.

A Good Match

Another Lunafest short that I really liked was A Good Match, which looks at a classic question for singles: What happens when you break up with someone but still love one of his or her parents?

“I wanted to make a movie that was not about a romantic relationship, but rather about a relationship that is usually regarded as peripheral to the romance – the one between a woman and her boyfriend’s mother. This relationship often becomes a casualty of the romantic breakup, but I wondered what would happen if the ex-girlfriend and the mom tried to keep it going.” ~ filmmaker Lyn Elliot

In A Good Match, Ann and Alex have broken up, and Alex has a new fiancée. Ann, however, misses Alex’s mom. She creates a pretext to visit, and the two women renew their relationship on different terms. They grow progressively closer until Alex finds out. Her or me, he tells his mother. What she decides and why she does so offer insight into the relative importance of family and friendship.

Miss Todd

One of two animated shorts in Lunafest, Miss Todd tells the story of a young woman fighting for a career in aviation in the time of the Wright Brothers. The animation is rich; the story compelling. At the same time, the film grounds its optimism with a realistic portrayal of the challenges facing ambitious women in that era.

The other films in Lunafest are:

• Tits – the other animated short;
• Chicas Day – in which a woman and girl bond through an afternoon of leisure;
• Flor de Toloache – a documentary about a women’s mariachi band that left me wanting more; and
• Viva – which profiles an octogenarian veteran of the punk-rock era.

Lunafest is sponsored by Clif Bar & Co., which makes Luna nutritional bars for women. The traveling event raises money for the Breast Cancer Fund and other charities. Upcoming screenings are scheduled in Portland, Ore.; Palm Springs, Calif.; Los Angeles; and Corvallis, Ore.

[Blogger’s Note: A July 2013 profile I did of The Yoga Hangout was written and published before the studio became a business partner of mine.]

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: A Good Match, Breast Cancer Fund, Clif Bar, Lady Parts, Luna, Lunafest, Miss Todd, The Yoga Hangout, Tryouts