(Los Angeles, CA) Multi-award-winning gay film director, producer, and author Steve Balderson has released his memoir, “Year of the Whore.” Now, he’s celebrating Gay Pride Month by kicking off an Indiegogo campaign to make the book into the feature film “Love Venezia.”
Steve Balderson’s “Year of the Whore” is coming to the big screen as the feature film, “Love Venezia,” and goes into production later this year with half the film shot in Italy. He’s 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. Legendary cult icon Mink Stole famous who starred in John Waters’ infamous films, has been cast. Adult stars Dante Colle and Danny Wilcoxx have roles in the movie, as well as Princess of Hollywood Pleasant Gehman and amazing actor Spike Mayer.
Steve has partnered with a production company that will partially finance the film. He’s launched an Indiegogo campaign indiegogo.com/projects/ignite-your-pride-a-film-celebrating-gay-love# to raise $70k to complete his budget and celebrate Pride Month. Stars of the film and Steve have posted a video on the Indiegogo page and Instagram to make everyone fall in love with the project and donate during June. In addition to supporting this incredible film, backers can score some stellar perks, including a digital download of the film, a sensual guided mediation MP3, a Q&A with the cast, an intimacy workshop lead by a relationship and sex therapist, a chance to appear in the film and attend the premiere, executive producer or producer credit, and more.
“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,” says Steve Balderson.
“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.
To interview Steve Balderson for your site, publication, or show, contact Erika Icon of The Rub PR at [email protected].
ABOUT STEVE BALDERSON
Film director, producer, and author Steve Balderson has an impressive catalog of work. His first film PEP SQUAD premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and became a 90s cult classic. Roger Ebert gave Steve’s film “Firecracker,” starring Karen Black and Mike Patton, a Special Jury Award on his annual Best Films of the Year list. The U.S. Library of Congress selected his award-winning film “The Casserole Club,” starring Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys, for its permanent collection. Steve’s latest multi-award-winning film is “Alchemy of the Spirit”—a supernatural love story starring Xander Berkeley, Sarah Clarke, and Mink Stole. Steve ranks #47 on the IMDb’s Top 100 Gay and Lesbian directors working today.
Steve has penned five books. His first book, “Filmmaking Confidential,” debuted as an Amazon and Audible best-seller. In 2022, Steve’s book “How to Find Investors” was published by Dikenga Books. And in 2023, hehe’s released his most introspective and personal book to date, “Year of the Whore,” a memoir of his journey to sexual reawakening, which will be released in 2024 as a feature film. He contributes to The Advocate and MovieMaker magazines and has been a guest lecturer at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Steve narrates audiobooks for Audible and interviews notable guests for the “Filmmaking Confidential” podcast. In 2020, Steve produced a radio play of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, starring Theatre World Award winner Jennifer Grace as Hedda.
For more information, visit his official website SteveBalderson.com and DIKENGA.com for more on his films, books, audio, and podcasts. Follow him on social media in Instagram @dikenga, Twitter @sbalderson, TikTok @sbalderson, and Facebook facebook.com/stevebaldersondirector. Get all his links in one place at linktr.ee/balderson.
