Moondance International Film Festival, now in just its third year of existence, has been declared by Filmmaker's Alliance, in December 2000, via their e-group listserve members & website (even before the 2001 festival!) to be the third most important film festival in the world. Not most fun, biggest, richest, most parties, but most important.

Elizabeth English is the Founder & Executive Director of Moondance International Film Festival, which is found at the website address URL: www.moondancefilmfestival.com.

Elizabeth has strong feelings about film, it's place in the world, women's place in that world, and how it should all be. Moondance has become the very embodiment of the philosophy of Elizabeth English.

"Moondance promotes, encourages, educates and rewards non-violent conflict resolution in the arts & film. Our much-coveted Columbine Awards are given to the film-makers &/or writers who best depict alternatives to violence as a method of dealing with conflicts, whether personal, local, national or international, and/or show why violence as a solution to conflict is ultimately counter-productive and inhumane. Our mission is to present a vibrant and growing collection of films and writings, which is an ideal means for communication across perceived boundaries of race, culture, age and gender.

Our objective is to identify and address the root causes of violence and contribute to the just and peaceful transformation of violent conflict resolution. The core of conflict transformation work is the building of a sustainable peace between all people. This involves a process of profound change in attitude, transforming situations characterized by fear and killing into environments in which reconciliation, respect for other people, social justice and participatory democracy can take root. The creation of the Moondance Columbine Award is a response to the rise in violent conflict between individuals, neighborhoods, in schools, different cultures and genders, within countries and the subsequent abuse of individual and collective human rights in minor and major conflict situations.

Today there is an evermore pressing need for conflict resolution and peace-building efforts.

Moondance, via the Columbine Award project, has as its goal:

1. Facilitating dialogue at different levels and sectors of society in conflict

2. Encouraging and motivating the international community to address the structural causes of conflict

3. Generating international awareness for the issues and concerns arising out of our work and through the written works and films honored at Moondance, and created by young people, men and women

4. Opening up an on-going dialogue with creative people on how non-violent conflict resolution can be accomplished and promoted throughout the international entertainment industry

5. Cultivating an awareness of solutions to violent conflict resolution, honoring creative diversity, developing an intercultural dialogue, and stimulating this creative resource

Internationally generated feature, short, documentary & animation films, TV programs, stageplays, musical videos & song lyrics, puppetry theatre, short stories, radioplays and screenplays can give voice to critical problems of violence raised by world, regional and local issues and experiences, and point to the root causes of conflict. These creative endeavors can educate and motivate the public audience, can teach alternatives to violence, and can address issues relating to the deep-seated causes of conflict. Promoting non-violent conflict resolution within the entertainment industry does not mean stifling some voices so that others may be heard. We ask only that OUR voice be heard, also.

Women filmmakers and women writers are vocal and active participants in the social forces that shape our culture. The natural role of women in peace-building and non-violent conflict resolution at the local, national, regional and international levels is a vital component of our program. More and more women are caught at the center of violent conflict. In ethnic, religious, gender and identity wars, women and girls are becoming the direct and deliberate victims of killing, sexual assault and rape. But women are not just victims. They have taken the initiative to reach across the conflict divide and seek peace.

We seek to identify and encourage these women and men and the existing or potential opportunities for peacemaking, as well as to identify possible approaches able to create conditions for viable and less violent processes.

We believe that genuine conflict transformation can be achieved by those directly affected by the conflict. Our task is to motivate and support those young people, and women and men who are committed to forging initiatives for peace and non-violence; exploring paths toward healing and reconciliation, and creating an atmosphere encouraging dialogue within their families, neighborhoods, towns, cities and their countries, thus enabling people's participation in the entire process of learning viable methods of non-violent conflict resolution.

The Moondance Columbine Award project proposes to:

1. Raise global awareness of women's experiences and perspectives of peace and conflict

2. Help women better realize their potential as peace-builders, from the village to the national and international level

3. Affect the international film and television industry, as well as the music industry, specifically targeting those entities to motivate them to fund and produce films and shows which depict viable alternatives to violent conflict resolution

4. Acknowledge the potentially powerful roles writers and filmmakers can play in securing peace

5. Gain a greater commitment by the international film community toward depictions of non-violent conflict resolutions

Elizabeth on Kids & Film

Moondance International Film Festival, through its Dolphin Contest, seeks to honor what young international filmmakers and youthful activists can bring to the screen 1) agility, inventiveness, passionate idealism 2)and at the same time to motivate and inspire our children and young people to speak out, forge alliances rooted in mutual respect and a synthesis of different experiences and points of view, and make a better world for their future, or to just dynamically express themselves in their own unique way. Through the screenings of these films, kids can share their visions with kids and with adults. Kids take stock of the diverse array of social causes and issues around which our world's young people are becoming mobilized to illuminate and act upon the interconnections between circumstances at home and around the world.

Through film, and with their intense and dogged curiosity about how the world works, they can find a new way to communicate to a wider audience how to change the status quo and interface between world youth activism and global engagement, and the ways young activists can work together to tackle their common global issues. Young people are playing important roles in a number of areas where international and domestic problems (and their solutions) overlap. We are building a bridge, through the art of film, to encourage international awareness and understanding for young people from the elementary grades through high school. Those filmmakers who see portents in the shape of things to come of an unfolding shift in generational consciousness, a gathering global rights movement, the flowering of flexible, Internet-based activist network may in the end prove to be prescient. This commitment, this yearning, broadens out to a sense of community responsibility that is internationalist in its scope. Global issues strike home. It is such an exploration that this competition seeks to launch, by championing globally-minded youth activism among young people around the world, and the ways in which these young activists can work together to tackle global issues creatively, through animation films, documentary films and short films.

Elizabeth on Categories and Genres at Moondance International Film Festival

We enthusiastically encourage both men & women to enter the special side-bar competition: The Seahorse Contest. Submissions of films & screenplays, stageplays, radio scripts & tapes, TV scripts, puppetry theatre, music videos, lyrics & librettos & short stories, if they have women or girls in the story, are required to depict those women & girls in a positive manner. Entries that do not have women or girls in the story are also welcomed. Additionally, we're looking for entries which have lead roles for women actors who are aged forty or over, but this is not a requirement for submission.

The Columbine Award Competition is open to men and women. All films & screenplays, stageplays, radio scripts & tapes, TV scripts, puppetry theatre, music videos, lyrics & librettos & short stories for this contest category should promote & reflect non-violent conflict resolution, or alternatives to violence, or show why a violent resolution to conflict is counter-productive & inhumane. Submitted material should not contain gratuitous violence. We are not seeking non-violent entries, but we do wish to see submissions in this category which show the viewer or reader either alternatives to resolving a conflict violently, or show us how violent conflict resolution (such as in Northern Ireland, Gulf war, Viet Nam, WWI & II, Israel/Palestine, Columbine high school, apartheid, murder, rape, gang wars, drug wars, race relations, abuse in families, etc.) usually doesn't solve the perceived conflict. Moondance does not try to censure violent films & written works, but we do wish to present & encourage alternatives to violence.

The Spirit of Moondance Awards category will remain for women only. The films & screenplays, stageplays, radio scripts & tapes, TV scripts, puppetry theatre, music videos, lyrics & librettos & short stories for that category may have men who worked on it, but it must be submitted by either the woman writer, director, cinematographer, editor, &/or producer. Male co-writers & film crew are OK. There are no limits or restrictions on content or genre.

The Dolphin Contest is for girls & boys aged 18 or younger. Young filmmakers are encouraged to submit their short films, documentaries & animation films,in any genre, to Moondance. We wish to motivate and inspire youngsters to express themselves and tell their stories from their unique perspective and to film their impressions of the world.

Puppetry is an ancient theatrical art that reaches diverse audiences like no other form of entertainment. Moondance has added puppetry to our film festival categories to help promote and develop the art of puppetry in the world, for children and adults. Our goal is to introduce new audiences to the magic of puppet theater through our Sandcastle Awards, puppetry workshop and the presentation of the winning productions of the highest quality puppet theater, at the Moondance International Film Festival.

RADIO PLAYS ARE MIND-MOVIES! Radio is sometimes known as the writer's favorite medium; as Malcolm Bradbury once said, it is "a world made with words shaped into being, without a physical presence." With radio, you have to use your imagination - something you don't need when watching TV or movies. We can be whomever we want to be, travel wherever we want to go; all in "our mind's eye", thanks to radio programs. The stories and scenarios are often planted forever in our memories and in our own personal "theatre of the mind". Radio drama has long been a fertile training ground for writers and is a genre in which screenwriters, playwrights and television writers feel at home. It has given voice to generations of writers. From Dylan Thomas and Samuel Beckett to Harold Pinter; all have been involved with radio drama. Moondance is dedicated to ensuring that radio drama, comedy, documentary & commentary remain an integral and dynamic part of our international broadcasting and cultural heritage.

Elizabeth on The Moondance Living Legacy Award

Dr. Linda Seger was presented with the first Moondance Living Legacy Award. The award will continue to be presented annually to honor & recognize women in the film industry who have contributed most to insuring that women's work is recognized & appreciated for its worth, who help women achieve success in film, and who have themselves contributed a vital body of work. Moondance wanted to honor Dr. Seger with the first of these awards because of her work and to thank her for her most valued participation in the success of Moondance, which success could not have happened without her contributions and advice from the beginning. Moondance Living Legacy Award is a pendant necklace of the Moondance Mermaid logo, in sterling silver just like the Moondance winners' awards, but with a pearl inside. The pearl in the mermaid pendant represents the honoree's special contributions to our goals as women. Of course, the pearl is created in the oyster from a grain of sand and grows into that lovely & luminous object. This is an allegorical/metaphorical symbol of our struggle to make something beautiful and valuable from our struggles to overcome the "grain of sand" women often encounter when trying to express themselves within the film industry, and that resulting pearl is a reminder to us of what we can accomplish.

Elizabeth on Moondance International Film Festival 2002

The Moondance International Film Festival invites you to attend and participate in our festival workshops, seminars, special events, parties, awards ceremony, staged readings and independent film screenings, which gives film aficionados, writers and filmmakers a unique opportunity to see the best international films, and to come together with other writers, directors, agents, distributors and producers to create new opportunities, develop tools for success and forge new alliances.

Special Moondance themes: cutting-edge international independent films; women's films & writings; films produced by kids; films, stageplays, radio shows, music videos & TV shows for kids; non-violent conflict resolution in the arts & film; music videos, stageplays, short stories, radio shows, TV shows, films & writings with depictions of women & girls in a positive light; films, radio, TV & writings with lead roles for women over 40.

Types of winning films to be screened: FEATURE FILMS, SHORT FILMS, CHILDREN'S FILMS, FILMS BY KIDS, DOCUMENTARY FILMS, ANIMATION FILMS & MUSIC VIDEOS.

There will also be staged readings of the winning screenplay, the winning stageplay, & the winning radio play, as well as the winning TV episodic, TV pilot & TV movie of the week. Moondance is the first and only film festival in the world to offer a reading of a winning radio play, plus the winning puppetry theatre as categories in a film festival. The winning puppet show will also be read or presented at Moondance 2002.

Elizabeth on SPONSOR INFO:

WHY SPONSOR MOONDANCE?

1.a. High visibility and branding exposure, internationally
b. Access to filmmakers, film & TV writers, musicians and industry execs

2.a. Alignment of your company with Moondance & its mission
b. Year-round VIP status & promotion on our website
c. Promotional opportunities via our monthly 15,000-name e-newsletter

3.a. Investment in filmmakers and your business
b. To support alternative and diverse voices SPONSORSHIP PACKAGES Depending on the sponsorship level, all companies receive benefits such as logo or line acknowledgment on advertising and promotion, opportunities for product placement, literature on-site or as an insert, logos on invitations, signage opportunities, logos and ads in sponsored publications, on the website, in the e-newsletter, media releases and much more.

PRINT PROGRAM ADVERTISING: Purchase advertising in the Moondance print program of films screenings, lists of winners & other festival information. The program is distributed at the festival and has a year-round circulation of 2500. All Moondance attendees receive the program as well as the media.

Elizabeth's answers to prepared interview questions:

I was a writer, cartoonist, sculptor, artist, screenwriter & playwright, as well as a theatrical director/producer for about 20 years. I got the screenwriting bug when working as a technical advisor (on Lakota Sioux arts & culture) for Kevin Costner on location in South Dakota during the filming of Dances With Wolves, in 1989. Before that, I was an interior designer for international, high-end building projects (hotels, resorts, marinas, estates, palaces in Saudi Arabia, habitat in Antarctica, Lunar & Mars habitat design for NASA). I also worked as events coordinator for several film festivals & environmental conferences, such as Earth Day, political fund-raising, and Native American issues.

2. What was your inspiration for Moondance? Frustration with the Hollywood system. I knew there must be many talented screenwriters "out there", like me, who might be unable to get a read, due to the subject matter of their screenplays (non-violent/dramatic/woman-oriented); their non-L.A. locations; their age (over 30 or 40+); their gender (female); their lack of produced credits, and lack of insider contacts or a relative/friend in The Biz. I wanted to offer those women an opportunity to have their work read by a peer, rather than a typical young, male reader. I also wanted to give them the chance to get their work to prodcos after winning the Moondance.

3. What is the overall philosophy of Moondance?

Our work on reaching out toward film-makers and writers everywhere in the world is primary and ongoing. Writers and film-makers from all six continents, and from a wide diversity of ethnic and linguistic groups are an integral part of our mission and goals. We seek to inspire and invigorate this creative potential to perceive, conceptualize, and produce their works or the benefit of the world society. We are dedicated to preserving their accumulated accomplishments and visions as expressed through the art of film and writings.

Moondance also promises to raise awareness of the invaluable contributions of women to the entertainment community. Equity for women in the film industry does not mean stifling some voices so that others may be heard; it does not demand the compromising of personal standards to achieve success. Equity creates new standards which accommodate and nurture differences. Equity fosters the individual voice, investing women with confidence in their own authority. Equity unleashes the creative potential. We see the equal treatment of all women and the equal respect for all responses they explore as essential to their and our ultimate goals.

Moondance promotes, encourages, educates and rewards non-violent conflict resolution in the arts & film. Our much-coveted Columbine Awards are given to the film-makers &/or writers who best depict alternatives to violence as a method of dealing with conflicts, whether personal, local, national or international.

The long-term vision of the Moondance International Film Festival is to preserve and revitalize our intangible heritage, cultivate creative diversity, develop an intercultural dialogue, and stimulate this creative resource. Our mission is to present a vibrant and growing collection of films and writings, which is an ideal means for communication across perceived boundaries of race, culture, age and gender. These works document the complexity and depth of men's & women's experiences that will become widely accessible within the world film industry and to the public, and will encourage and inspire others to write and to make films.

4. What does Elizabeth English like to do besides film and script development and women's issues?

I enjoy writing poetry, song lyrics, libretti & short stories, cartooning, and reading, as well as doing in-depth research on a variety of subjects, such as mythology and traditional tales. I'm now involved in researching & writing the definitive world encyclopedia of mermaid art & lore. I'm also working on (and enjoying, immensely) developing my musical animation feature screenplay. I also like to ride & train Arabian horses. . For leisure, if I ever had time for it, I would like to be relaxing on the beach of a quiet Greek island, or on a lonely tropical isle, watching dolphins frolic in the sea.

5. What do you think turns a good story into a great script and a greater film?

Depth of characterization, great dialog, and uniqueness of story concept,well-told & moving, emotionally connected elements.

6. What do you particularly find the most fascinating in a script or a film?

See #5, above, for both scripts & films, but for films, add great cinematography & wonderful production values & the director's ability to visualize the script & translate it to a film.

7. How should a screenplay writer best pursue the marketplace? It sometimes seems so hopeless.

#1: Learn to write a great screenplay.
#2: Never give up. That's my motto. Perseverance. But a screenwriter absolutely must learn his or her craft. Study with the pros, read all the books, attend seminars, read great screenplays, watch great films & study them, not as a movie buff, but as a writer. Figure out what makes them work, and then use that in your own work. Once you have a really great screenplay or two or three, then you can begin marketing it/them.

Make connections, schmooze everybody, network, get to know who can help you get "in" with the next person who may help you. Take seminars in moving your careers ahead, such as at the Flash Forward Institute. Get your work out there, via entries in film festivals & competitions and via online resources, such as Zoetrope.com, WordPlayer.com, WritersScriptNetwork.com, and TV Writers.com. Attend film festivals & parties. Join e-list groups of screenwriters & filmmakers. Get an agent or manager. But you still have to market your stuff without relying on an agent to do it for you. Win a film festival or competition.

Another possibility is to do it yourself: produce a short film or trailer of your script to send out to producers.

8. What do you think are the most important steps in screenplay development? Editing it. Seriously. Making sure it's the best screenplay or film in the world. But the writer usually is not involved in development, if you mean finding funding for the film.

9. What projects have you written yourself and how is the marketing going on those?

I have 10 feature screenplays, 3 short screenplays, 2 animated musical screenplays, several stageplays, and 5 treatments I'm marketing, with the help of my agent, Terry Porter, of Agape productions, a packaging agency. I'm writing, on assignment, a feature screenplay for a Greek director in Athens.

One of my stageplays has won finalist status in the prestigious Alexander Onassis competition, which is the international theatrical equivalent of an Oscar nomination. A short screenplay won the Greek Film Centre's 2001 competition and will be directed by Vangelis Maderakis later this year. Another short screenplay is in early development with a friend from Dances With Wolves, stills photographer, Ben Glass, who will direct. My musical animation feature is with composer, Andy Brick, prior to being submitted to studios. Another short screenplay was a finalist at the AFI Women Director's Workshops 2001.

10. Do you want to produce and if so, where do you plan to seek the project you want to develop?

Yes, I want to co-produce films, but I prefer to direct. I also like to do production design/art director work. If I were to produce or co-produce a film, other than one of my own, I would look to the winners & finalists of Moondance, first, then to other film festival winners' work.

11. What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you in the development of Moondance International Film Festival?

Seeing the Moondance writers & filmmakers go on to great successes after the festival. The most pleasant experience I had was at the first Moondance in 2000, standing in the center of the Moondance labyrinth, watching happy festival participants dancing along the labyrinth paths and being inspired & encouraged by others. That was one of the main goals of Moondance, and seeing it achieved was what made me so happy.

12. What's the most disappointing thing that's happened to you in the development of Moondance International Film Festival?

Lack of financial sponsors, frankly. But I'm positive this will soon be remedied, once we have our non-profit status in place, which should be very soon. I had mistakenly imagined that individuals & corporate sponsors would come out of the woodwork, without thoughts of their own financial benefits, to support a great cause and organization working toward equity for women in film, non-violent conflict resolution in films & TV, and absolute top-quality films & screenplays.

13. What's the funniest thing that's happened to you in the history of Moondance International Film Festival?

It's not funny, but is poignant & made me laugh, joyfully. The very first morning of the first Moondance, I stood alone at 8 AM in the quiet foyer of the host hotel, wondering if anyone at all had shown up for my festival. I slowly opened the double doors to the private dining room, where I feared I would only see a dozen empty breakfast tables. It was a "Stella Dallas" moment, I'll tell ya. But when the doors opened, there were 50 Moondancers seated at those tables, eating and laughing and getting to know each other, and another 100 showed up later for the workshops.

14. What's next for Elizabeth English?

Making the Moondance International Film Festival even more of a successful event for our participants and sponsors. I am now in the process of forming a Moondance Foundation, which will administer the film festival events & judging, co-produce films by Moondancers, subsidize screenwriters & filmmakers of any age or gender and young (18 & under) filmmakers, educate & promote writers & filmmakers, produce puppetry theatre, promote non-violent conflict resolution in film, publish the Moondance magazine, publish a Moondance Catalog with items made by indigenous families around the world, and start a traveling Moondance film festival of selected screenings, internationally.

I also expect to see films produced from my screenplays!

15. What advice would you offer the emerging screenwriter?

Learn & practice your craft. Don't ever accept mediocrity In your writing. Never give up. Believe in yourself. Know & never doubt that you will achieve success and it will come to you.

15. What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Be open to whatever life path is presented to you. Be grateful for life and your talents. Write & film what you know. Leave the world a better place than you found it.

17. When thinking back on the films and scripts that have passed through your hands in the last three years of Moondance, do you see them in snippets, loglines, scenes, or whole films?

Whole films. I see the best screenplays as films, too.

18. What do you think makes a film memorable?

An engaging, unique story; directed, produced & acted well.

19. What do you think readers are really looking for?

A script that they can promote to the next level. A money-script.

20. What do you think the next trend in moviemaking will be?

Less violent conflict-resolution, more positive depictions of women & girls, more films with women actors over 40, and more films written, directed and produced by women.

21. Is there anything else you would like to say to emerging writers, producers, and film makers?

Now it's your turn! You can settle for someone else's vision of the world, or you can bravely embark upon a journey of your own. Moondance is about inspiration, encouragement, collaboration, stimulating self-confidence, learning new ways of perception and creative expression, and cultivating a whole new concept of success for women in the international film industry. There is purposely no elite-ism at Moondance; everyone associated with the film festival is both a student and a teacher. We seek to support and nurture dreams and to motivate creative artists to follow that ream, no matter the prevailing circumstances. Writers & filmmakers often perceive the world differently, and their reactions to these perceptions, expressed in the art of film, writing and music can invigorate and spark the creative imaginations of others in the world, especially that of our children and the future generations.

Women filmmakers and women writers are vocal and active participants in the social forces that shape our culture. They portray women as three-dimensional, complex human beings and thus defy the demeaning and pervasive stereotypes perpetuated by the mainstream media. Moondance is dedicated to promoting visibility for women in the international film community and in Hollywood and their impact on the film industry. We see this as a means to disrupt and correct the misogynous, fantastical, passive, destructive and denigrating visual representation of females that has, historically, been rendered by men in media and has for so long and so plentifully pervaded our visual culture.

Moondance now encourages men writers and filmmakers to submit their work to Moondance, but in order to win or be a finalist, or to have their films screened at the film festival, we require that their work depict women & girls in a positive manner. The annual Moondance International Film Festival, which takes place in January each year, is for the benefit of both women & men, and all are encouraged to attend and participate.