About Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival
Immerse yourself in Fourth Wave feminism! We are not just a festival. We are a movement.
We invite you to join us on March 2020, as we will premier our Fourth Annual Festival in Los Angeles!
About the Organization
Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival (LEFUFF) is an official women's charity and educational based 501c3 non-profit and is the ONLY traveling organization that showcases exclusively feminist experimental art and narrative work.
Our organization prides itself in going beyond the festival by assisting at need communities through art and education. We provide a vital role in community enrichment and support though various philanthropic drives and events, including Books For Babes, a literacy initiative that focuses on bringing feminist children's books to under-represented communities nation wide.
LEFUFF also provides financial assistance and support to women and female identified artists attempting to acquire film distribution and career enhancement.
About the Film Festival
Les Femmes Underground International is a film festival centered on the subversive, unique, and innovative. LEFUFF, showcases artists from all walks of life creating work which redefines the manner in which women are represented in mainstream cinema.
LEFUFF invites you to take a cinematic adventure that destroys the meaning of mundane through its unique programming via the underground world of feminist inter-sectional art, music, and celluloid fantasies.
Les Femmes Underground International film festival features films from over 30 different countries ranging in genres from Documentary, Experimental, Narrative, Horror, Female Sexuality, and our own concoction Psychotropic. Our programing digs into the esoteric realms, of witchcraft and feminism. We pride ourselves in merging occult ideology and notions of the phrase, “witch” as a way to indoctrinate equality, independence, and empowerment.
Why was LEFUFF Created?
Les Femmes Underground was created as a response to the decline of feminist icons and role models in the media.
As feminists, we believe it is our responsibility to empower new generations of young women to generate work which breaks away from society’s gendered roles. Les Femmes Underground seeks to premier first time under-represented emerging feminist film-makers and artists.
Dreams for the Future
We hope that through community support and involvement we can one day acquire a forever home for our young organization. Our hopes is to have a women's community arts center, where we can provide things beyond art such as free mental health, educational resources for youth, as well as, holistic care for its members. We hope to heal the community through art and we hope you can join us in those efforts, donate today to help us reach those efforts.
Our Mission Statement
1. Equip, inform, influence, and mobilize, women in underground media.
2. Transform the landscape of cinema for women by creating opportunities and forums that accurately represent them.
3. Create opportunities for young girls and young women via educational resources, wellness fairs and literacy efforts.
Award & Prizes
Jury awards are given for the following categories:
-
Experimental Film
-
Narrative Film
-
Documentary Film
-
Animated Film
Board Members
Edda Manriquez
President/Festival DirectorEdda is an award winning filmmaker based in southern California. She has an M.F.A. in Film and Video from the California institute of the Arts and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego. She currently works with the Getty research institute / The Internet Archive.
David Leopoldo
David Leopoldo Gonzalez is an award-winning writer, his work has previously showcased at theCalifornia Sociological Association in Northern California. David has curated various art shows
throughout the southern California region. He is also the Co-Founder of Les Femmes
Underground International Film Festival, and the Chief Financial Officer. He is a certified
Benefits and Cost Analyst by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. David currently, works
at the California Institute of Technology
Cristela Reyes
SecretaryCristela is a filmmaker, philanthropist, and community activist. She acquired her degree at the University of California, Irvine, where she majored in International Business. She is currently pursing an M.B.A. degree in business. Her expertise lays in marketing research.
Elizabeth Ferguson
Community Outreach CoordinatorLiz is a filmmaker, and founder of Porcelain Rose Productions since 2010. She has worked as a production assistant for several major media companies. She got her B.A. degree in Visual Arts: Media at the University of California, San Diego.
Adriana Gomez-Weston
Adriana is a Marketing Coordinator and Content Writer. She has always been passionate about writing- more specifically film criticism and about hot topics such as diversity in the entertainment industry and feminism. She received her Bachelor of Science from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina and relocated to Southern California. She is currently based in San Diego.Heidi Honeycutt
Press CoordinatorJiJi Corvo
My name is JiJi and I’m in love with every mystery that lies beyond the dimension accessible to humans. Outer space and nature are my favorite parts of life. Everything I do is to help make this world heal back into its beautiful, natural equilibrium. In order to do so, I create artwork to try to capture the emotion of the mysteries and beauty that challenges human emotion or influence. My mediums range from music to acting, but my specialty lies within writing.Danny Jarquin
I.T. DepartmentDanny specializes on hardware maintenance such as computers, phones, tablets reprogramming among other electronic devices; as well as software development in Java, Visual Studio, and verse in programming logic. He is currently striving for a B.S. in Computer Science to expand programming literacy and is an intern at an electronic repair shop to grasp the hardware technology of today.
Advisory Board
Gabriela Garcia Medina
Gabriela holds a BFA and MFA in Acting from a prestigious university (UCLA) and conservatory (CalArts). Gabriela was commissioned by Eva Longoria to write a poem, that is now etched (in glass) on the walls of Ms Longoria's Hollywood Restaurant Beso.
Paulette Hood
Paulette is an avid photographer and artist. She is based off San Diego.