It's not a level playing field [for women]. So get over it. Just believe in yourself and get it done.
– Debra Chase Martin, motion picture and television producer
Last year was the first time I had attended Lunafest. I admitted to Peggy Murphy, one of the founding members of the East Bay Lunafest Committee, which is bringing the traveling film festival to El Cerrito for the seventh year running, that I had outright deleted her e-mails about Lunafest in the past. Let me explain. November through February is the busy season for me at work, which culminates in this big annual conference that my company hosts. Everything falls by the wayside. Everything. But last year, I wasn't required to go to the conference and I had freed up time, so I opened Peggy's e-mail invitation to Lunafest. For some odd reason, I thought Lunafest was something else, but the idea of a short film festival "for, by and about women" was inspiring to me in the same way that funding breast cancer prevention and other local nonprofit organizations was inspiring, as well as empowering and a wonderful exercise in building community. I went with good friends. I laughed, I cried, and then . . . I joined the committee because I wanted to get involved more. I wanted to be a part of putting together an event that was magical and transformative, celebrating women's creativity and their determination to come together to fight and overcome cancer.
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