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A Dance For Bethany
Copyright
© 2007 |
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Running Time: |
104
minutes |
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Genre: |
Drama, Romance |
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Similar to: |
Erin Brockivich meets
Antwone Fisher
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Director: |
Brian Gurley |
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Story & Screenplay: |
Yvonne G. Williams |
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Producers: |
Marion D. Williams |
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Co-Producer |
Lee Nesbit |
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Executive Producer: |
Marion D. Williams |
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MPAA Rating |
PG-13 General audiences |
"On a completely unrelated note, the script is breathtaking. I thought I'd
read somewhere that this is your first screenplay. Can that be true? It's
spellbinding; I usually get very bored reading scripts, but it held my
attention the whole way through. The action is spread masterfully between
the different characters."
Elisabeth Gray - Actress |
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Dear Yvonne Williams,
Congratulations! Our jurors have deliberated and your
film was selected to receive a Redemptive
Storyteller Award
for 2007.
This is a tribute to your hard work and the
high quality achieved by your
team.
Our
jurors included professionals with years of experience in many aspects of
cinema and television and one "film aficionado," who represented the public.
All entries were screened using very high standards and only films with an
average rating of 80 percent were selected as award winners. Several good
films were not selected for this award, so you should be proud of your
achievement.
Again, congratulations.....
Sincerely,
Chris Cunningham, Festival Director
Redemptive Film Festival
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“Human trafficking is a multibillion-dollar growth industry because,
unlike drugs, which are gone as soon as they are used, humans can be recycled.
Because they can continue to be exploited, they're a better investment for the
traffickers.”
...Terry Coonan,
Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida
State University
This story could have been ripped from the Headlines.
Click here to read the transcript from the Anderson Cooper Report on CNN
News January 24, 2007. The next week ABC News ran a similar story.
And Fox ran one last year. Investigative Reporter
Michele Gillen has been reporting on this issue for the past several years.
Click here to view her on Oprah Show. Yes, this is happening in
America today! The story actually came from Inspiration and we
located all the information and facts about it later.
Yvonne had completely written the script for A Dance For Bethany
and was in L.A. at the Screenwriters Expo when she turned on the television news
one evening and saw Michele Gillen and
Terry
Coonan sharing this information. She then contacted both Mr. Coonan
and Ms. Gillen and learned of the tragic scope of this now American issue that
had been mostly found in third world countries until the past few years.
Yvonne was astounded at how contemporary and real this problem is and that she
had been Inspired to tackle it as the subject of her first screenplay. She was
able to speak with Ms. Gillen at length and consult with Mr. Coonan to verify
the facts of what she had written and make a few tweaks for accuracy. This
is a story that wanted to be told.
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SUMMARY of the Movie:
A DANCE FOR BETHANY tells an inspiring
and compelling story of how one woman risks everything to help a sex
trafficked victim out of the world of slavery and into a world with a future
and a hope of fulfilling a childhood dream of becoming a real dancer. The
fictional story based on the reality of the sex trafficking market in
today’s US, The fictional Bethany Stevenson is iconic as a 12 year old runaway forced into sex
slavery as a stripper/prostitute. The film chronicles the struggle of
reporter Abbey Fisher to free her own self from the bondage of a politically
correct and comfortable lifestyle into her passion. After meeting and
befriending young Bethany, Abbey immediately meets opposition from local
club owners who don’t want to lose one of their prime moneymakers. Abbey is
quickly challenged when she learns that she is caught in a tightly woven web
of politics, morals and crime and becomes a problem to those who want to
profit from sexually exploiting young women. She takes on her husband and
his colleague, Senator George Abbot and their attempt at creating
legislation that inadvertently profits by the retailing of sex in the US
thereby legitimizing it. With the help of Sarah, Abbey's best friend and
Co-worker and Eric Vandevere, local dance instructor, Bethany receives
support and courage to make a new life for herself and in the
process publicly exposes the dehumanization of the sex trade in her city. In
the end, the Reporter, Abbey Fisher is the one who finds true redemption as
she reaches outside herself to help another.
Coming to select cities- click
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In the end, there is no private good.
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Asheville, NC offers very
diverse and cinematic locations that add production value to any film and
certainly has to ours. We have been able to capture a big budget
look and feel for this
A Dance For Bethany using actual Asheville locations
and with the help of our very talented Production Design team headed up by
Gayle Wurthner.
In difficult times, historically family entertainment wins out.
Even though family films return high profits to the studios, they haven't
gotten it yet and only release a small number in this genre and mostly
animation in recent years. The time is right to produce cost-effective
films on smaller budgets that effectively show higher returns.
Family genre films have become more profitable in foreign sales markets in
the past few years. The foreign market now represents twice the
revenue of all domestic markets according to numerous sources.
We believe movies can affect behavior and
attitudes of their viewers, stimulate the fulfillment of dreams and provide an
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
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Inspiration from Woodrow T. Wilson...
"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to
enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer
spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and
you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
Abbey
Fisher finally "got it!" How about you?
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How You Can Help or Get Help:
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How
can I recognize trafficked victims ? Click here
