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From geologist to practitioner of holistic medicine, back to geologist and finally to movie mogul has made for a winding road for Taberna resident, Dr. Andrea Levinson Stern. But on the eve of production of her first movie – Death, Taxes. . . and Chocolate!

– things are looking up.

Stern relinquished her status as a geologist because of an auto accident that left her debilitated. She got better with holistic medicine. She was fascinated, studied and became involved as a practitioner. Then she had a severe "stress related" heart attack and ended her practice. She returned to Houston to become a geologist again in the oil business. Suddenly her job fell out from under her. Never one for sitting around, she pulled out a play, The Death by Chocolate Club, she had written in 2005 and gave it to an actress/girlfriend who sent it to a Hollywood scout. “He (the scout) loved it. He said he thought it would become a classic,” said Stern. “I sent it off to six other people and they all raved about it.”

The only problem – it was a play. For the movie industry it had to become a screenplay. After six months of writing and rewriting, it became exactly that. “I sent it off to a couple of directors and they loved it,” Stern said. “I picked one in Wilmington. Sheffield Entertainment is going to be the director and producer. I am the executive producer. I could have sold the script for something like $10,000 and then you get nothing. But I looked at some of the chocolate festivals. I talked to one in Vancouver and they said they get something like 2.4 million hits on their Website. I talked to another one and they get 350,000 hits a month on their Website. I thought to myself, if I keep this, I get that money.”

Stern is deeply involved in the movie, both financially and psychically. She obtained a second mortgage to fund the movie. She is using her home, her boat and her town as a backdrop. The characters are based on herself, friends and acquaintances. The dialogue reflects thoughts that Stern has dealt with in her own life. She says the beginning is totally true. And the ending is completely made up.

“My parents both had cancer at the same time,” Stern recounted. “My father had Alzheimer’s as well. I lived in Cleveland and I was running to two cities. We had to separate my parents – my mother was in the hospital with melanoma and had brain surgery and we couldn’t move her. My dad we had to move to Erie, Pennsylvania, so now I’m running from Cleveland to Florida to Pennsylvania. I’m trying to run a natural medicine practice and trying to take care of two children and a husband. And nobody felt like they were getting quality time, especially me.”

This story had incredible bearing on Stern’s screenplay. There are other facets – growing up Jewish in an all-Catholic school, in college being one of four female geology students in a testosterone-driven profession. It all has its place in this screenplay. Stern said her son came to her one day and said he supposed he would be the one to take care of her in her old age. Her answer: “No you’re not. I am going to fill my boat up with chocolate and sail down the river and you’ll never see me again.”

Stern told her children after her heart attack that she didn’t want to be rotting away in a nursing home with someone changing her diapers. She decided to take control of her life. “I did some research,” Stern said. “I got on the Internet and looked up the religious aspects of suicide. I found that the Native Americans and some of the Eskimo tribes just walked off from the tribe when they were too old to contribute. So why can’t we?” That night at a Friday night deck party on her boat, Stern shared her thoughts with some friends. To her surprise, they wanted to join her when the time came. “I was sort of kidding,” said Stern, sounding incredulous. “We started talking and we determined that keeping people alive beyond their natural lifetime is business. We do it for profit. Being a geologist and a holistic doctor, I look at nature. In nature, any animal that isn’t fit is going to become prey for another animal. It’s just not natural to keep our sick and elderly alive. Man does it because he can. I’m not sure that it’s the right thing to do.”

Add to that global warming, the fact that the animals we eat are artificially inseminated, genetically modified and treated with antibiotics that can eventually harm us, and overpopulation of the earth -- just to mention a few -- and Stern had a story and a pulpit. “It’s really alarming,” Stern said. “We are overmedicating seniors, we can’t feed the population we have, and there are global warming issues. I never mention pharmaceuticals. I allude to them. So the story has a lot of social value to it. It is also about the total love of chocolate. Why can’t our death be a celebration? There is a character who is totally opposed to the premise of ending lives. She wants to maintain her friendship with the group but she’s trying to talk everybody out of it.”

Stern interviewed eight friends and created six characters. There’s a CIA guy, the ex-coal miner who becomes the mayor of New Bern and his wife, his ex-wife who is a teacher, a sea captain, a holistic doctor and a turkey farmer. “The movie is so funny,” Stern said. “In every two pages of serious there is a phenomenal joke. When you go boating and you’re out there for two or three hours, all there is to do is yak. There are scenes at Dun Artie Salon.

We are totally featuring New Bern. All of the opening credits are scenes of New Bern.” This is a very inexpensive movie to film and it will only take about eight days to complete. It is being filmed in Stern’s home, New Bern and Wilmington. Much of it is filmed on Stern’s yacht, a 49-foot Sea Ray Sportfish. The Coast Guard will appear as well as an airplane. At the time of this interview, Stern also had no idea who the actors were going to be. Auditions were being carried out in Wilmington.

“I’ve just told people to bring their Kleenex and their Depends,” Stern said. “It is funny.” The World Premier of Death, Taxes . . . and Chocolate will be held on April 20 at the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center. You can pick up a ticket order form at Bear Essentials, 309 Middle St, , Lou's Towne Shoppe 233 Middle St., and Pia's Restaurant on 2909 Trent Road. Tickets may also be ordered from Dr. Stern by calling 252-638-3311 by e-mailing alevinsonfilm@yahoo.com. Local residents who would like to be extras in the film should contact Dr. Stern for more information.

23-Jun-08 “DEATH, TAXES… AND CHOCOLATE! WILL PREMIERE AT THE