A Dance For Bethany to Premier

Blue Mountain Living Magazine
 

Asheville Film to Premier
Blue Mountain Living Magazine

Imagine 27 million current slaves worldwide. That is the number of human trafficked slaves on our planet in 2004. The latest current figure is around 30 million (www.concerttoendslavery.com); the figure comprised of everything from child labor to forced domestic labor to sex slavery, the most inhumane of them all. There will be 800,000 new victims this year and nearly 20,000 of them trafficked into the United States for the purpose of making money for their perpetrators and sometimes used thirty to forty times a day. Human Sex Trafficking completes with Drug Money today. (FSU center for the Advancement of Human Rights)

Asheville Fine Arts Theater will host the premier of A Dance For Bethany, produced by Asheville film makers, Marion and Yvonne Williams September 20th through the 27th. The fictional story depicts the struggle between idealism and materialism, between money and personal worth. Bringing a current social issue (human sex trafficking) to national attention, it makes a simple statement: We are worth more as human beings. The film was completely produced on location in Asheville in 2006 with twenty- one locations some of which include The Asheville Citizen Times, the Drhumor Building, Asheville Arts Center, Broadway Arts and the Tarmac at Asheville Regional Airport.

“I wanted to create characters that the audience could relate to especially the youth, 12 and 13, which are prime targets for sex traffickers although the film is for general audiences. If we created an R rated film then the audience that most needs to see the film would be left out completely”, said Williams.

In April, the film-makers held a screening of about 150 audience members ranging from ages nine to seventy. “The reaction was overwhelming”, said Williams. “A Dance for Bethany touched the hearts of all ages. I saw an older gentleman (sixtyish) standing next to the concessions after the film and noticed his eyes were red. He was still tearing. He said. ‘I really had no idea what this was all about’. I said, "You're crying" and he started again. ‘Yvonne it's absolutely wonderful’.

A 9-year-old female who came with her mom said, “I’m going to bring all of my friends to see it”. Since she was 9 years old Yvonne asked her if the scene where Bethany was beat up bothered her and she said no. Her mom said, "She’s seen a lot worse on television. We both think it is a wonderful movie”. The little girl added a final statement, “This is a movie that we (young girls) need to see”. Williams added the teenage runaways are the prime targets in America and they need to be educated on the issue.

Lead Actors include: Robyn Lively (Young Indiana Jones, Karate Kid, III and the recent Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board and has been featured in Strong Medicine and Crossing Jordan); William McNamara (NYPD Blue, Law and Order), Loribeth Edgeman (Warm Springs, 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story and the Lifetime premier of Army Wives); Frank Hoyt Taylor (The List, Talladega Nights, Walk the Line, Dreamer, June Bug and Ann Mahoney (Big Momma’s house II, Frankenstein and Snow Wonder). The all SAG (Screen Actors Guild) cast of 23 were exceptional in the portrayal of their characters.

Raise The Bar Productions, Inc. has recently changed their S Corp to a 501c3, something quite unique in the film industry, in order to return a portion of the revenues to organizations that garner social awareness related to the story lines of their films. BSCC of San Diego, CA; Soroptomist of Philadelphia, PA and the New York Coalition Against Sex Trafficking are just three organizations that the Williams are working with to promote A Dance For Bethany and help those organizations who work with rescue and restoration of the victims.
The Production Company produces family genre films in High Definition at lower budgets with high production values. “We believe movies can effect behavior and attitudes of their viewers, stimulate the fulfillment of dreams and provide and increased sense of living. We believe that good stories rooted in timeless values such as family, community, integrity, love, compassion and personal growth have always had universal appeal. In fact, one might even argue that in times of political and economic uncertainty, good stories, like a good physician, have the power to heal”.

Williams has a unique quality of creating a story and characters that make her films entertaining while touching us at the core where the “in your face” style of film making tend to leave the viewer with a sense of helplessness. “When you can relate to a character as if it’s your next door neighbor or best friend at school you want to do something”, Yvonne said.

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