December 11, 2009 in Features

Filmmaker hopes bash raises cash

Fundraiser at the Bing will help finance local movie

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Cannes award-winning screenwriter Serena Belsby is taking an unconventional route to financing a local movie – she’s throwing a party at the Bing Crosby Theater.

The fundraising party, called the “Fling at the Bing,” features music by the local Latin band Milonga and by singer-songwriter Cris Lucas.

It will also include dancing, drinks from Dry Fly Distillery and Townshend Cellars, food from David’s Pizza and auction items from plenty of local businesses.

If enough partygoers show up, Belsby hopes to raise a significant chunk of the $200,000 she needs to film “Nothing Like a Redneck Christmas” in Cheney and Spokane.

It’s a comedy about a farm family which gathers at their Cheney ranch for a Christmastime funeral.

It is no coincidence that Belsby comes from a Cheney ranch family. She was born in Spokane, brought up in Southern California, and spent every summer on the family ranch.

She said she has always wanted to use it as a setting for a movie, and she wants to make the Cheney-Spokane setting integral to the plot.

“We don’t have to go outside of Spokane,” said Belsby, who has recently moved back to Spokane from Los Angeles. “We have a lot of resources right here.”

The movie will use a mix of actors – some local, some from L.A. and Florida – and a crew made up mostly of professionals from Spokane.

A budget of $200,000 is ultra-low by Hollywood standards; some movies exceed that just for catering, Belsby said. But she said she can pull it off because most of it will be filmed on the ranch.

The budget may be low, but Belsby has some high-end credentials.

Her first screenplay, “A Second Chance,” won first prize at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival’s Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Competition. She is also an alumnus of the Sundance Writer’s Lab.

The movie will be directed by French director Stephanie Joalland, who has directed several short features.

Belsby’s project is part of the Independent Filmmaker Project’s Fiscal Sponsorship program, which is nonprofit. That means that the admission price to this fundraiser is a tax-deductible donation.

If all goes well, “Nothing Like a Redneck Christmas” will have a three-week shoot beginning the third week of February.

And then Belsby has big ambitions.

“I want this movie to be at Sundance 2011,” she said. “I am an alumnus, so that helps.”

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