Award Winning Comedian Don Barnhart Jr’s First Feature Film China Dolls To Unveil At The 2008 Cannes Film Festival

China Dolls the first feature film by writer/director Don Barnhart Jr to debut at the 2008 Festival De Cannes in France under his Chucklehut Entertainment production company. End Quote

"China Dolls is a gripping look into the world of human trafficking told with a unique sense of humor showing a side of Sin City that few ever see..."

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease) April 14, 2008 - Barnhart wrote, directed and stars in this gripping tale of two Asian girls born into the underground world of human trafficking and this is the first film under his production company Chucklehut Entertainment.

Don Barnhart Jr (winner of 2007 American Idol Underground’s Comedy Contest) first got the idea while traveling abroad entertaining the troops for the USO and Comics On Duty World Tours. “I saw the depths that people go to in some of the third world countries selling off their children for a few hundred dollars” said Barnhart in a recent phone interview while entertaining the troops once again on The Comics On Duty Tour. “So many women and young girls are sold into the sex trade and have no chance of ever getting out. China Dolls is the story on one girl’s never ending dream to get out and live the American Dream”.

Barnhart and his wife Linda Vu, who co-stars in China Dolls, share producer credits on the film as well as a natural chemistry on the big screen. They are also producers on The Freedom of Speech Comedy Show and with the recent success of China Dolls, they are already in preparations on two more feature films.

The film is gaining great early reviews: “Four out of five stars”, “one of the best independent films in a long time”, “fast paced and entertaining”, “China Dolls shines a light on a side of Sin City that few seldom see”. The movie was shot on location in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Kauai.

China Dolls had been shopped around Hollywood but Barnhart turned down several lucrative offers along the way opting to keep creative control over the project. It was then that he and his wife decided to produce the film themselves putting in their own money with the belief that the film would find an audience. And it already has.

With the power of the internet, Barnhart and Vu pre-released the DVD and download of China Dolls and have already gotten their money back. “We bypassed the studios altogether and decided to test the power of the internet and were shocked by the huge response” added Vu, “We first put the preview up on our myspace page and that drove people to our official web site where they could order the pre-release DVD or download the movie and in the first month we got just over 100,000 hits on ChinaDollsMovie.com we were blown away at the response with the DVD selling for $19.95 and the mp4 download selling at $4.99”.

The film also stars Don Turner, Qi Kinshella, Jon Halbur, Howard Chan, Aiko Tanaka, Nikki Chao, Jeff Capri and original music by Pierre Jovan. All of which have substantial film and television credits but were not recognizable by face. Barnhart said, “We wanted the story to drive the picture and not the attachment of a celebrity. It’s a risk to do it that way but we always felt if the story was good, we could make our money back. Everyone cautioned us that we need a name or star but I always told them that Nicholson, DeNiro and Streep all started as no names and somebody had to take a chance. That’s what true movie making and art is all about. Not playing it safe.”

For more information/interviews:
Chucklehut Entertainment
702-449-1763

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