Louisville Premiere: “Produce” the Movie!

David DeSanctis stars in Produce the movie

This Saturday night is the Louisville premiere of the movie Produce. What a great way to kick off National Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

This Saturday, as part of the Louisville IdeaFestival, the movie Produce will be shown at Louisville Slugger Field, where part of the movie was filmed.

The movie stars Louisville native, David DeSanctis, a young man with Down syndrome, in the title role, “Produce.” His character has that nickname for the section he works in at the local supermarket.

Here’s the trailer for the film:

The showing of the film this Saturday brings the production of the movie full circle to its start a year ago.

Last year, at Down Syndrome of Louisville’s annual walk, the film’s producer, Milan Chakraborty, announced that DeSanctis would star in the title role. (I wrote about that great moment at this post, which includes video from local newscasts).

Well, the film will have its Louisville premiere this year the evening of DSL’s 2014 Walk. A Hollywood ending to a story that started here a year ago.

Louisville’s local paper, the Courier-Journal, ran my op-ed this Monday on this great Saturday for raising Down syndrome awareness. You can read the op-ed at this link.

While shooting the film in Louisville, the film’s production team also shot video of local charities supporting individuals with Down syndrome. Below is the video shot of DSL at DSL’s Louisville campus. In it, I have an appearance where I discuss the advances in prenatal testing:

If in the Louisville area, you can purchase tickets to see the movie at this link. It should make for a memorable Saturday night: watching a film shot locally in a unique venue for seeing a movie, a professional baseball park, starring a very unique individual, David DeSanctis.

I hope to see you there.

Your author & his family at Slugger Field 2013 as crowd members for a scene in Produce