Behind the Camera is a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of the nine filmmakers featured in LUNAFEST, a traveling film festival by, for and about women. Each week, the Step Up Blog will feature two incredible women and their passion for film and storytelling. Buy your tickets to this year’s LUNAFEST on February 27 in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago here. Step Up supporters save 20% on tickets with the code StepUp.
Alexandra Liveris
Alexandra Liveris is an MFA Candidate in Stanford University’s Documentary Film and Video Program and a 2013 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar Graduate Student Fellow. Prior to Stanford, she worked at the William J. Clinton Foundation as the Multimedia and Special Projects Manager and at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) as the co-founder of their young leaders project, CGI Lead—a program focused on development projects in the Congo. Alexandra started her career at the Charlie Rose show, producing interviews on foreign policy and the arts. She received a B.A. in International Relations at Tufts University in 2007 and studied and performed at the Private Theater, the Maggie Flanigan Studio, and the Stella Adler Studio in New York City from 2008 to 2012. With a dual passion for international human rights and the performance arts, Alexandra is committed to making feature, documentary and hybrid films with a social bottom line.
About her film, Maria of Many – After being mistreated as a part-time hire, Mexican immigrant, María, finds her voice, a community and dignity within the San Francisco Women’s Collective—an all women worker-run group that provides cleaning jobs in exchange for activism on behalf of the rights of domestic laborers. María is proud of her work, yet her deepest motivation for putting in long hours is to provide a better life for her children.
My first job was…working as an intern at the United Nations.
When I was 15, I was… constantly packing my bags.
Now I am…still packing my bags.
My passion is…the lives of others.
My mentor is/was…a special set of independent women that lent me their precious time.
My film tells the story of…a woman who doesn’t give up.
My all-time favorite movie is…Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Something that inspires me and my art is…the experience of watching Chris Marker films.
Julie Engaas
Julie Engaas attended the National College of the Arts, and studied animation at Volda University College, graduating in 1997. Since then, she has directed several animated shorts, as well as the documentary Sound-Shadows, which has screened at numerous international festivals and been sold to several TV networks. Awards Engaas has received for her work include the Audience and Critic’s Awards at the Norwegian Short Film Festival in 2004, for the short Leonid Shower. Engaas currently works at the production company Mikrofilm AS.
About her film, Sound Shadows – Enter a world where sound gives shape to space.
My first job… was cleaning the local grocery store once a week.
When I was 15 I was… a student, impatient, eager to see the world.
Now I am… an animator, mother, worried about the future.
My passion is… animal welfare.
My film tells the story of… Hege, a woman that was born blind, and her perception of the world.
My all-time favorite movie is… Jonas Odell´s “Never Like the First Time,” Hayao Miyazaki’s films especially “My Neighbor Totoro,” and “Abductees,” by Paul Vester which was the first animated documentary I saw.
Something that inspires me and my art are… films, books, people and nature.
For more information on LUNAFEST, watch the trailer here.
100% of LUNAFEST net proceeds benefit charity: on February 27 in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, 85% of proceeds go to Step Up and 15% to the Breast Cancer Fund. Enjoy a night out with great films, support female filmmakers and make a difference for Step Up girls. Step Up supporters save 20% on tickets with the code StepUp.
