LOS ANGELES—Award-winning gay director, producer, and author Steve Balderson has released his memoir, Year of the Whore, and he's celebrating Gay Pride Month by kicking off an Indiegogo campaign to turn the book into the feature, Love Venezia.
Balderson's Love Venezia will go into production later this year with half the feature to be filmed in Italy. Balderson has written the script and cast mainstream and adult stars in what can be described as Eat Pray Love or Under the Tuscan Sun, but with a gay protagonist. Mink Stole who starred in John Waters' productions, has been cast. Adult stars Dante Colle and Danny Wilcoxx have roles in the movie, as well as Pleasant Gehman and Spike Mayer.
Balderson has partnered with a production company that will partially finance the production. Additionally, he's launched an Indiegogo campaign here to raise $70,000 to complete his budget and celebrate Pride Month. The cast and Balderson have posted a video on the Indiegogo page and Instagram to encourage donations. Backers can also score perks, including a digital download of Love Venezia, a guided mediation MP3, a Q&A with the cast, an intimacy workshop led by a relationship and sex therapist, a chance to appear in a scene and attend the premiere, an executive producer or producer credit, and more.
Balderson said, "Now that the script is written and we've cast the film, I'm excited to go into production. One-third of the film budget is covered, but we still need to raise the rest. I hope everyone will contribute on Indiegogo and/or tell all their friends and get the word out there. This is an important film that's very close to my heart since it's my life that will be on the big screen. Plus, it will reframe how the LGBTQ+ community and gay love is portrayed in the world."
Year of the Whore is available on Amazon as an audiobook and paperback at yearofthewhore.com. It's also available on Amazon in the UK, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, Australia, and Japan.
For more information, visit Balderson's official website SteveBalderson.com and Dikenga.com for his releases, books, audio, and podcasts.
Follow Balderson on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Get all of his links here.
