Lights. Camera. Help. is this weekend!

Can you believe I started a non-profit with my friends less than 3 months ago and here we are! Check out the progress we have made! A lot of people think about a non-profit film festival and think it will be a weekend full of crying puppies and 30 second long bursts of tears. Not so – remember, non-profits are in the business of positive outcomes. Hope is hackneyed, but that won’t stop us from serving it up next weekend.

We do have some PSAs, like the humorous ones produced by the Ad Council and the hopeful one by the Michigan Humane Society, but we also have feature length films and narratives.

Fowl Play moves past the image of the idyllic egg to show what happens to chickens when hyper-consumerism gets involved. Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars shows what happens when several small towns rally to wrest control of their environment from special interests. Our closing film, Art From The Streets follows the lives of several homeless people who spend their year producing professional art that culminates in a gallery showing.

Art from the Streets

Several non-profits put their mission into narrative. Tale of Two Brothers, a 12 minute short, follows the lives of two boys through adulthood to see how individual choices and community involvement can have impact. Red Ink, made by 15 year old Devansh Mathur, spends 8 minutes looking into the heart and mind of a teenage boy on the edge of giving up on everything. There are also two other youth entries by Reel Grrls and Mobile Film School.

Whatever your favored charity, whatever your film style, we have a touch of it. Check out the summaries of the films and organizations we will be showing below. And come to see how it ends.

Showing Friday, July 31st

Aid to Artisans – Aid to Artisans
Survivors of Dating Abuse – Break the Cycle
Manifesto – Lance Armstrong Foundation
Family Portraits – Jewish Family Services of Seattle
Give 5 – United Way Capital Area
Reality, Mobility, Independence – Wheelchair Foundation
Think Pink Lemonade Stand – Women Playing for T.I.M.E.
Think Before You Speak – Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
Fowl Play – Mercy for Animals
Mills to Manhattan – Best Friends Animal Society
In A Place Like This – Mobile Film School