Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is kidnapped and whisked off by monks to Cambodia where an evil Russian scientist has shrunk him to the size of a superhero figurine.
Grammy-nominated Tucson singer-songwriter Linda Chorney, who desperately wants Sanders to use her song as his 2020 campaign theme, comes to his rescue, saving her now tiny giant hero from certain political doom.
That's the far-fetched and ridiculous — albeit funny — premise of Chorney's DIY 10-episode sitcom "Saving Bernie," which was released Tuesday on the ad-free video subscription platform Vimeo. Chorney wrote the 10-episode series — they may add an 11th depending on the outcome of the Democratic primary race — and she and her husband Scott Faydnich filmed and produced the project.
The series, which takes jabs at Donald Trump and casts him as the evil mastermind behind the kidnapping plot, was filmed largely in Tucson. It features more than 40 Tucsonans including Chorney's father, Paul Chorney, and Tucson residents David Gramling, Sean Berube, Andy Taylor, Agata Orlinski, Emi Sydow, Byron Martin, Carl Weinstein, Lanny Colton, Christine Ricci, Amy Cash, Emma Paunil, Scott McGlamery, Caren Jablonsky, Dorie Nichols, Russell Thompson, David Updegraff, Lori Diguardi and Pam Bass.
Chorney and Faydnich started production last February and filmed on location in a dozen countries — Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, China, Antarctica, France, England, Iceland, Mexico, Honduras, and Belize.
Chorney said she wrote the series "Because we all need a laugh right now, and making 'Saving Bernie' kept me sane."
This is Chorney's second full-fledged film project. She also wrote and produced her bio-pic "When I Sing," which took top honors at a number of national film festivals in 2018 including beating out 80 films to win the screenplay and best film nods in the Borderland Film Festival in New Mexico in October 2018. The movie recounts Chorney's improbable 2012 Grammy nomination and fallout from detractors who questioned how an independent artist could be nominated for music's highest honor.
"When I Sing" is available on Amazon.
