Corporate Philanthropy, College Students, and The LUNAFEST® Film Festival

In 2001, Clif Bar & Company, makers of LUNA: The Whole Nutrition Bar for Women, debuted LUNAFEST[R], an international touring film festival that showcases short narrative and documentary work of female filmmakers and raises money for the Breast Cancer Fund and other nonprofit women's organizations. A pre-packaged film festival with clear and easy instructions for every stage of the event--from publicity to ticket sales--LUNAFEST[R] is a user-friendly fundraiser that simply asks its host organizations to stage and promote regional festivals. Since its inception, LUNAFEST[R] has made significant inroads into university settings. Having integrated LUNAFEST[R] into two classes at her small liberal arts university, the author is troubled by its place in higher education. In a 2006 seminar titled "Film Festivals and Social Change," students spent the entire semester working on various components and concerns of film festival exhibition, while in a 2007 introductory seminar on "Women Filmmakers," students moved from learning about the history and politics of female directors to working as exhibitors of their work. While both classes offered students real experience organizing a women's film festival, the corporate ownership and sponsorship of the festival, its fundraising stipulations, and its prepackaged design posed a number of challenges that should concern any teacher worried about corporate influence in educational institutions. At her university, the author used these challenges as opportunities to help students think critically about the relationship between the commercial and the academic, examine issues around philanthropy, and explore the politics of film festival programming, marketing, and reception. In this article, the author discusses her successes and failures navigating these areas with students, as well as alternative possibilities for similar exhibition experiences outside the corporate model. (Contains 16 notes.)