Life and Death Matters Festival Kicks Off Tomorrow

The first-annual Life and Death Matters Festival begins tomorrow at the Nomad Theatre in Boulder, Colorado, and runs through Sunday, September 4th. The festival, which was conceived last fall as a platform for filmmakers who addressed the journeys of life and death, features twenty-seven films, nine original plays, and more than twenty educational seminars, community events, and programs that examine the “physical and spiritual challenges we face, while highlighting the courage and triumph of the human spirit.”

The festival was founded by journalist/non-profit director Karen van Vuuren and actor/producer Erin Kelly. Van Vuuren, formerly a broadcast news journalist working in European and Asian radio and television, moved to the U.S. from the U.K. in 1993, and has since worked with Hispanic literacy, hospice education, and senior care. She produced and directed the documentary film Dying Wish, and she founded and directs the non-profit Natural Transitions, which supports holistic approaches to life’s transitions.

Kelly is an actress and producer of a variety of commercials, short films, feature films, independent films, and web series. In 2009, Kelly founded Rock Rose Entertainment, part of whose vision is to create an alternative vision of living and dying through the art of film-making

The festival is a non-profit venture that works with community partners toward the goal of educating and inspiring the community to promote a conscious approach to all of the facets of life and death. The founders wanted to create a unique platform for the artists and educators who have investigated the “human journey”, providing a place for them to display their work and provoke a deeper understanding of these issues.

The festival kicks off tomorrow night with the Opening Gala at 7pm. The Gala will feature a red carpet reception and music from Colorado’s Hazel Miller, followed by a showing of the Sundance film Undertow, an unusual ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside.

More information and the full schedule can be found at LADmatters.com.