Award-Winning Filmmaker Rachel Earnest Hosts Fundraiser for Feature Film

ESCONDIDO, CA (March 3, 2010)  - Award-winning filmmaker and San Diego native, Rachel Earnest, will host a fundraising party for her upcoming feature film LE SEJOUR on Friday, April 2, 2010 at the Welk Resort in Escondido.

The event will include a screening of Ms. Earnest's award winning short film "Le Retour". A film heralded by Trevor Groth, the Director of Programming at the Sundance Film Festival, as "intelligent, emotional and truthful, and brilliantly captures that bittersweet feeling of leaving an exotic place and returning to the more mundane, familiar world of home."

Following the screening, attendees are invited to a meet-and-greet with the film's cast and crew while experiencing a taste of France with wine and hors d'oeurves from Le Rendez-Vous Cafe.  Special Guest Karenssa LeGear, star of the Welk's production of The Pirates of Penzance, will serenade guests with a selection of French songs.

Fundraiser Event
April 2, 2010
7:00-8:30PM
Welk Resort Theatre
8860 Lawrence Welk Dr.
Escondido, CA 92026

About the Film: LE SEJOUR chronicles the hilarious and heartbreaking adventures of a young woman studying abroad in Cannes, France.

About the Filmmakers:

Writer and Director: Rachel Earnest's credits include "Le Retour" (premiered at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood,) and played in 50 films festivals both domestically and abroad. Awards and special screenings: Best International Short (Kerry Film Festival), the Silver Lei award for excellence in filmmaking (Honolulu Film Festival), Platinum Award (Worldfest), Best of Sehsuchte: (Sehsuchte International Film Festival). Producer: feature film Mary Marie. Earnest has lectured on filmmaking at schools and colleges in the US, Canada, and the UK and has been interviewed by magazines such as European Weekly, Music and Fashion, and Riviera. In addition, Earnest has worked in commercials, at Muse Films, Heroes, C.S.I. Las Vegas

Special Guest: Karenssa LeGear invites you to the Welk's current production, The Pirates of Penzance, in which she plays Gilbert & Sullivan's famous ingenue, Mabel. Recent stage credits include the Operas: The Medium, A Midsummer Night's Dream, & Il Trittico; the dark comedy, The House of Yes, and Kurt Weill's musical, Threepenny Opera. Karenssa has also originated roles in Heather Megill's musicals, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Fate, as well as Loesser's More: a Musical Revue by Tony Award winner Scott Waara. Film & TV work includes collaborations with filmmaker Rachel Earnest, the CW's, Veronica Mars, and coming soon, the lead in a dramatic feature length film set to shoot this summer in San Diego. www.KARENSSA.com

Actress: Alana Kearns-Green's credits include Le Retour (Best Actress Nominee: YoungCuts, and Method Fest), Mary Marie, Out of the Blue, an iPhone commercial for Qualcomm industrials, a music video for Cucu Diamantes, and improvisations from Pursuit of the Pomegranate with actor Jackson Rathbone. She has been seen on an actor's panel with Michael Keaton and Matthew Modine. Presently in post-production for Mary Marie (co-written with Alexandra Roxo)

Cinematographer: Magela Crosignani was born in Uruguay. She holds a BFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and an MFA from the prestigious American Film Institute where she earned her degree in cinematography. Awards: Kodak Cinematography award (Palm Springs Film Festival) and the Maurice Kanbar Achievement in Cinematography Award (Fusion Film Festival). Credits: The Imperialists are still Alive! , Mary Marie. B camera operator and second unit cinematography credits: Everything is Illuminated and Olivier Dahan's My Own Love Song.

For more info contact Joshua Carr, Producer at (760) 749-3000 x22148 or email jcarr@welkgroup.com

Media Contact:
Joshua Carr
Producer
760-749-3182 x 22148
jcarr@welkgroup.com