Press Release – 08/12/14
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Denver, CO, August 12, 2014 –
Living out loud – The BolderLife Festival in it’s fourth Festival Year
We are excited to announce the fourth annual edition of the BolderLife Festival and it’s second year in Denver.
The fourth edition of the annual and international BolderLife Festival will take place at the Holiday Event Center, 2644 W. 32nd Avenue, in Denver in the week of October, 13th-19th, 2014.
True to BLF’s mission we use artistic platforms such as film, theatre, fine art, dance and music to set the stage for difficult conversations, exploration and learning which is guided and encouraged by keynote speakers, filmmakers, educators and panels. We use the arts as a vehicle for Exploring Life and Inspiring Change through the arts and emotional education because art is one of the most powerful levers in bringing light into darkness.
2014 Program Forecast and selected Highlights
- 3 Separate Themed Student Programs offered over 5 days with International Films (Topics: prevention of bullying and suicide, cultivating resilience and leadership, and exploring empathy through powerful survival stories of human trafficking)
- 4 Festival Days for the wider Community
- Opening/Closing Galas
- 20+ International Films
- 9 Short Local Plays within Theatre Program
- Educational Workshops
- Filmmaker Talkbacks
- Panel Discussions
- Community Partners
- 2 Original Dance Performances
- Women’s Program
- Original and Local Fine Art & Music
- Attendance Forecast: 2500-5000
Selected Highlights
- Keynote Speakers:
Craig Zablocki
Rick Gunn - Involved Organizations/Community Partners:
The Blossom Project
Free the Girls
iEmpathize
SafeHouse Denver
The Rose Andom Center
Womens Panel: “Living Out Loud: Women & Girls in Society, Business and Government” with
- Dr. Hava Rachel Gordon, Director, Gender & Women’s Studies Program, University of Denver
- Susan Shepherd, City Council Woman/District 1, Denver City Council
- Roweena Naidoo, Director of Self-Sufficiency at the United Way and Executive Director/Founder of The Blossom Project
- Diane Feliciano, Co-Founder/COO, Biocosm Corp and Co-Founder of BolderLife and Director of its Women’s Programming
Another key new element to the Women’s Leadership programming is its annual initiative to raise awareness, inspire a call – to –action and raise funding for a cause that would help empower women in need. This year we will be focusing on Domestic Violence with 50% of our programming proceeds benefiting SafeHouse Denver, a non-profit organization which servesvictims of domestic violence through both an emergency shelter and non-residential Counseling and Advocacy Center.
We are happy to get you in touch with our Program Directors, Panelists, Participants and the Festival Director and Founder Erin Kelly. They will be available for interviews and questions.
What is BolderLife?
BolderLife Festival BLF (501(c) non-profit organization) is a one week event in Denver, Colorado that consists of diverse programming that includes film, theater, dance, music, fine arts, community partnership and leaders, and education.The mission of BLF is to explore adversity and conversation to provide emotional education and growth order to cultivate boldness, freedom and inclusion. This simple recipe of artworks paired with workshops has proven extraordinarily powerful in the last 3 years and has proven to be an unparalleled event in Denver. Sie FilmCenter, host of the Starz Film Festival, has offered a partnership with BLF as they recognized that our programming is unique among the many festivals and screenings they host.
In 2013, BLF reached 800 students, 350 live-streamers, and 1500 members of the public. From filmmaker to staff, they are around 1k people, united by the BLF vision.
The components of our artistic programming are:
- FILM: International short and feature-length films are carefully selected to shed light on timely topics to cultivate discussions that create a platform for growth, learning and inspiration.
- THEATRE: Original plays are selected each year that are in alignment with our vision. International playwrights and local actors and directors work together to provide a diverse and thought-provoking theatre program.
- DANCE: We are joined each year by regional choreographers and dance companies committed to probing pressing issues, expressing complex emotions, and communicating information both current and primal on levels beyond and below rational understanding, in order to plumb the depths of human awareness, relationship and existence.
- FINE ART: A variety of original artwork by local artists is showcased throughout the venue that complements and celebrates the spirit and vision of the festival.
- MUSIC: Live music performances by local artists are held during the opening and closing night festivities.
Learn about the BolderLife at http://www.bolderlifefestival.com
Contact:
Verena Toth
Marketing Coordinator
Email: verena.toth.vt@gmail.com
Phone: (813) 368-6019
Erin Kelly
Festival Director BolderLife Festival
Phone: (303) 818-4645
Email: erin@bolderlifefestival.com
Website: www.bolderlifefestival.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BolderLife
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bolderlife1
Instagram: http://instagram.com/bolderlife#
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Press Release – 05/29/12
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erin Kelly
BolderLife Festival
(303) 818-4645
erin@bolderlifefestival.com
www.bolderlifefestival.com
Boulder, CO, May 27, 2012 – BolderLife Festival Challenges Filmmakers and Leverages Social Networking in 1-Minute Short Film Competition
What would happen if you used social networking to challenge budding filmmakers around the world to create 60 second films for a virtual short film festival with rewards and a cash prize? The BolderLife Festival, an annual Colorado-based international festival, is about to find out as it launches the BolderMinute Very Short Film Competition on June 1, 2012.
The BolderLife Festival is an annual 4-day festival that celebrates and explores the human journey through life via film, theatre and educational programming. This year, the festival will be taking place in Boulder, Colorado on September 20-23. The Festival’s Artistic Director, Erin Kelly, says, “throughout history, art has been a medium to express personal depth and passion. Here’s the challenge we’re presenting….can filmmakers do that in under one minute and capture the spirit of living a bolder life on film as the more traditional length films at our festival have?” Kelly is drawn to creative challenges and adds, “filmmakers and anybody that wants to be one will have the opportunity to show off their creative chops in the BolderMinute Competition.”
At the same time, the BolderLife management team wanted to extend the film festival experience to the thousands of people within their extended online social network that wouldn’t necessarily have the opportunity to attend the festival in September. That’s when the virtual film festival idea was born. Diane Feliciano, the Festival’s Marketing Director, points to the fact that in today’s world, “your potential festival audience extends far beyond the four physical walls of the theatres where you are screening films. Social networking has definitely made the world smaller and given us the ability to reach out to hundreds of thousands of people around the world with our socially relevant programming.” Feliciano adds, “we will be inviting all of our followers in our extended social network to submit their 1-minute films, view them and subsequently, vote on them.”
The BolderMinute Competition will kick-off on June 1 with film submissions accepted through August 1. Once filmmakers register through the festival’s site online and upload their film, BolderLife will maintain a film viewing and voting page. The film with the most votes at noon GMT on September 17 will receive a cash prize and be featured in the BolderLife Festival’s main film program on September 20-23 in Boulder. In addition, the 15 top voted films will be presented in a continuous loop on flat panel displays throughout the festival venue.
Kelly and Feliciano are using the BolderMinute as a launching pad to gauge interest in and establish new ways to deliver BolderLife’s brand of artistic and educational programming on socially relevant topics. For more information about the BolderMinute Very Short Film Competition, visit http://www.bolderlifefestival.com or contact erin@bolderlifefestival.com.
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Press Release – 04/13/12
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erin Kelly
BolderLife Festival
(303) 818-4645
erin@bolderlifefestival.com
www.bolderlifefestival.com
Former Boulder, CO student rallies to bring “Bully” film screening to over 16,000 Boulder students
Each year, bullying impacts over 13 million kids in America. This August, more than 16,000 high school and middle school students in Boulder, Colorado will have the opportunity to view the new documentary film, BULLY, and participate in discussion groups to address the issue head on.
BULLY follows 5 kids and families over the course of a school year, including the stories of 2 families who have lost children to suicide as a result of unrelenting bullying. The film has spawned The Bully Project, a collaborative effort that brings together organizations that share a commitment to end bullying. After they watch the film, Boulder students will attend town hall discussions and will be challenged to be agents of change to stop bullying.
BolderLife Festival will be bringing the event to Boulder in association with The Bully Project and their 1 Million Kids effort, Facing History and Donors Choose, online charities that make it easy for anyone to help students in need. BolderLife Festival is an annual Colorado-based international festival that celebrates and explores our journey through life via film, theatre and educational programming. Erin Kelly, the Festival’s Artistic Director, and former Boulder student says “At BolderLife, we aim to shed light on life altering events. Through the medium of film, theatre and education, we build a secure platform to deeply delve into these events and also work to provide a community to support that exploration.”
Local donor for the event, Rose Pritzker, was a student with Kelly in Boulder. Pritzker has been involved in the film since the beginning, and is one of the central people in the 1 Million Kids effort. “People across the country are making this movement their own in really creative, inspiring ways. Our goal is to reach a million kids with the film and our educational platform. We’ve already reached tens of thousands of students in just a few weeks. I’m excited to help bring this powerful movement to my hometown of Boulder.”
Pritzker also shares the team’s goal of changing policy. “BULLY has pushed forward new pieces of legislation. Congress is now putting together a bullying caucus to address this issue” says Pritzker. Director Lee Hirsch adds “seeing Boulder mobilized is incredibly inspiring as we continue to grow our numbers towards our goal of 1 million kids, at which point we’ll declare a national tipping point.”
The opportunity presented to the Boulder Valley School District has been met with open support by school administration and educators who will be working closely with parents, local organizations and the event sponsors. Colorado Congressman Jared Polis has also voiced his support in the effort.
For more information about this event, visit http://www.bolderlifefestival.com or contact erin@bolderlifefestival.com.
To read more about this event and the Bully Project please CLICK HERE
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Press Release – 11/10/11
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Erin Kelly
BolderLife Festival
(303) 818-4645
erin@bolderlifefestival.com
www.bolderlifefestival.com
Boulder, CO – BolderLife Festival Gears Up for Second Year of Inspirational and Provocative Programming
Following a successful first year run, the Life and Death Matters Festival has relaunched as the BolderLife Festival and is gearing up for programming that will blend international films, original plays and education in a 4-day event in Boulder, Colorado on September 20-23, 2012.
The festival celebrates and explores the human journey through life with program topics and settings that inspire audiences to question paradigms and explore new ways of thinking, communicating and living. “We want to educate and inspire while promoting a more conscious approach to life, whether it’s on a personal, community or global level” said Festival Director, Erin Kelly. The festival provides filmmakers, artists and educators who touch on the human journey, a common platform for them to unite and showcase their work.
The 2011 event hosted 30 international films, 9 original plays and over 20 educational programs. “The overwhelmingly positive response we received from the many filmmakers, artists, educators and attendees that participated, encouraged us to turn our sights to 2012 with a festival name that captured the empowering and uplifting spirit we all experienced at this wonderful event” said Kelly.
Educational Programming for the festival will be developed by The Bolder Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating personal and community transformation through education. The Foundation offers a variety of educational programs that focus on physical, behavioral and spiritual matters that shape us as people in addition to art, movement and sound workshops that provide an opportunity to harmonize the mind, body and soul.
For additional information on participating or attending the BolderLife Festival, visit www.bolderlifefestival.com.
The BolderLife Festival is a joint venture between Rock Rose Entertainment and The Bolder Media Group.