A short film festival returns to give women filmmakers a surge.

LUNAFEST is a festival of short films written and directed by women that travels to 150 cities each year. It seems to have three missions: to profile women filmmakers; to raise money for women’s causes; and to promote its corporate creator, LUNA Bars, a nutrition bar aimed at women and created by Clif Bar & Company.

It’s been here before, in 2008 and 2018, and this year’s screening benefits the Junior League of Monterey County and Chicken & Egg Pictures. No filmmakers will attend the one-day Monterey screening, which is playing in six other markets the same day. But Clif Bar and LUNA have put their money where their social conscience purports to be.

Ballet After Dark, by B. Monét, is a short documentary about a woman who started a ballet studio in Baltimore for women and girls who, like her, have suffered trauma. Xmas Cake – This American Shelf Life, is filmmaker Petra Hanson’s autobiography of her stint as a Japanese pop band lead singer, but it’s also a manifesto about choosing one’s path through life and standing by it.

Jeannie Donohoe’s Game looks like a conventional sports film – it features former Laker Rick Fox as a high school basketball coach – but it’s got a surprise revelation that shifts the story into high tension. How to Swim by Israeli filmmaker Noa Gusakov (FYI: the Carmel Jewish Film Festival begins the same day as LUNAFEST; see Calendar, p. 30, for details and schedule) is a smart and emotionally resonant film about two women brought together by loss, a pregnancy, and a lie.

Each film is prefaced by a short message from its filmmaker. The packaging on this festival is one smart cookie.

LUNAFEST is 2:30pm (matinee) and 5:30pm (VIP reception) Saturday, March 7, at Carmel Woman’s Club, Ninth and San Carlos, Carmel. Matinee: $25, $15/students, seniors; VIP reception: $50. 850-508-7928, lunafest.org