Jenn Gotzon, Northampton Area High School, Class of 1967, always wanted to be in a movie shown in her hometown.

“As a little girl, it was always a dream of mine to be in a movie at Becky’s Drive-In and the Roxy Theatre. That’s where I grew up going to movies,” says Gotzon.

Last year, “The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland,” was shown at Becky’s Drive-In Theatre, Lehigh Township, in a Bethany Wesleyan Church event held there.

“They [BWC] had their Christmas festival at Becky’s Drive-In,” recalls Gotzon.

This year, “The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland” will be given its Lehigh Valley movie theater premiere, 7 p.m. Nov. 19, Roxy Theatre, Northampton, where the movie continues through Nov. 24.

“The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland” is yet another movie caught up in the COVID shuffle when the coronavirus pandemic closed movie theaters, including the Roxy, and other arts, entertainment, cultural and culinary venues across the United States and around the world beginning approximately March 2020.

‘We lost our theatrical release because our distributor’s company went out of business because of COVID,” says Gotzon in a Nov. 2 phone interview.

“We released digital on Amazon Prime. For six weeks, we were a bestseller in new releases under ‘Romance.’”

“The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland” was to have been released theatrically November 2020. “It was on my grandmother’s 100th birthday, Nov. 17. She passed away a month later.” Gotzon’s grandmother, Anna Sadowski, lived in Pine Island, N.Y.

“The reason why we are releasing it [‘The Farmer and the Belle’] is because we are only releasing in small-town movie theaters to help them recover from COVID. We’re creating a new Christmas tradition that will happen every year,” Gotzon says.

Gotzon stars in “The Farmer and the Belle” as Belle Winters, a New York City model who meets the love of her life when she returns to a Christmas tree farm where she thinks she may have lost a family keepsake bracelet.

Gotzon’s husband, Jim E. Chandler, stars in “The Farmer and the Belle,” as Josh Carpenter, the love of Belle’s life.

Gotzon and Chandler married in 2017 on his family’s 100-acre Christmas-tree farm in Georgia.

“And we filmed it. It’s in the end credits [of ‘The Farmer and the Belle’],” says Jenn Gotzon.

“Jim plays the farmer. And I play Belle. And the storyline is inspired by our true love story. And you’re watching the real actors play themselves in a funny, family, Christmas kind of way.”

The phone interview is momentarily interrupted by Baby James, 13-month-old son of Gotzon and Chandler, who live in the New York City area.

“He’s [Baby James] got his own agent in New York City. He has a commercial coming out for Lovesac [modular furniture],” she says.

Gotzon is a daughter of Jo-Ann and Ronnie Gotzon of Moore Township. Ronnie Gotzon manufactures fishing lures and handcrafts wooden birdhouses.

Gotzon has 75 acting credits on the Internet Movie Database website, including five-time Oscar-nominated “Frost/Nixon” (2008), as Tricia Nixon; “I am ... Gabriel” (2012); “Forgiven” (2016); the Oscar-nominated “Alone Yet Not Alone” (2013); “Sinking Sand” (2016), and “My Daddy’s in Heaven” (2017).

“The Farmer and the Belle: Saving Santaland” received best screenplay, was nominated for best picture, and Gotzon was nominated for best actor at the 2020 International Christian Film Festival.

Gotzon received best actress for “God’s Country” (2012) at the 2013 Pocono Mountains Film Festival.

She began her acting career in murder-mystery dinner theater productions in Whitehall Township. She was a model at Chartreuse Talent Management, Allentown. “She was my childhood mentor.” Gotzon says of Chartreuse.

When “The Farmer and the Belle” unreels at the Roxy, it won’t be the first time Gotzon was on the big screen there. She was in a movie shown at the Roxy in 2012.

“I was in only one movie at the Roxy: ‘I Am ... Gabriel.’ And she [Chartreuse] interviewed me on stage to inspire the audience to live their dreams.”

Gotzon studied for two years at The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts and for two years at the Joanne Baron-DW Brown Studio in Los Angeles.

In 1998, Gotzon moved to Orlando, Fla., to be a dancer for Walt Disney World’s Entertainment Department in the inaugural parade for Animal Kingdom.

Gotzon has a motivational speaking program, “Inspiring Audiences.” In 2014, China celebrity makeup artist, Brother Zhen, hired Gotzon to be the face of his company Jubilee, which she was, through 2018.

Gotzon’s husband has 62 acting credits on the Internet Movie Database, including “Castle Falls” (2021), TV’s “Lodge 49” (2018-19) and “Stranger Things” (2017), and “Sinking Sand” (2016).

“We met on a movie,” Jenn Gotzon says of she and her husband. “He and I were both the leads,” she says of ”Sinking Sand,” filmed in Savanah, Ga., in June 2014, when they met.

“‘The Farmer and the Belle’ is a franchise,” says Jenn Gotzon. “We use movies, books and jewelry to inspire inner beauty and value in people’s lives.”

DVD copies of “The Farmer and the Belle” are available at Miller Supply Ace Hardware, Rt. 329, Allen Township; Walmart, and Christian bookstores.

Gotzon will be on QVC in December, selling jewelry she designed for the movie.

Of “The Farmer and the Belle,” she says, “We spent years working and crafting the storyline to embed the message of inner beauty through an inspirational, Christmas comedy for the family.”

The movie also stars Corbin Bernsen, John Schneider, Sandra Ellis Lafferty, Natasha Bure, Livi Birch, Kurt Yue, Henry Cho, Robert Amaya and Roxzane T. Mims.

The screenplay was written by James M. De Vince, Reuben Evans, Billy Falcon, Betty Sullivan and Bob Sáenz.

The film is directed by Wes Llewellyn (director, TV’s “Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural,” 2007-2019).

A sequel is planned for “The Farmer and the Belle.”

At the Roxy Theatre Nov. 19 screening, a children’s group will sing Christmas carols before and after the movie. Gotzon and her husband will sing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.”

Jewelry seen in the movie; copies of a book, “Beautiful Mabel,” read in the movie; DVD copies of the movie, and CDs of the movie soundtrack will be available for sale at the Roxy.

“Our soundtrack has many original toe-tapping Christmas songs. We have John Schneider singing on it. Toby Lee, Beckah Shae,” says Gotzon.

Mike Nawrocki, co-creator of “VeggieTales,” wrote the book, “Beautiful Mabel.”

“We hired Mike to write it. My character reads the book in the movie. It helps my character understand that beauty is within.”

Continues Gotzon about “The Farmer and the Belle”: “The whole story is about a girl who gets a bracelet from her grandmother and loses it at Santaland, on a pig farm.

“What’s important about the bracelet is that the bracelet has secret inscriptions about what a beautiful girl is.”

“God moved powerfully in the making of this film,” Gotzon says.

“We had over 400 people use [the Bible’s] first First Peter 4-10, which is to use whatever gift you have to serve others.

“The message of inspiring inner beauty has overwhelmingly impacted women age 34 and older.”

“The grandmothers are showing it to their grandchidren. And the girls are saying, ‘Grammy, I didn’t know that I was pretty because God made me beautiful.’

“We made this movie as an inspirational movie so that people from all walks of life can enjoy being able to come together and have a new Christmas tradition.

“The movie is going to be available in theaters, only at the Roxy [in the Lehigh Valley]. And then it’s available on DVD at ACE Hardware or on our website. It’s on Amazon Prime.

“And it really helps the movie if they rate it [on Amazon Prime],” Gotzon says.

“The Farmer and the Belle” is to be screened at movie theaters in New Orleans, Atlanta, Iowa, Arizona, Grand Rapids, Illinois, and Indianapolis, Ind.

The movie’s world premiere was Nov. 9 in New York City.

“We’re going to be ushering in the spirit of Christmas with the Lehigh Valley,” says Gotzon.

Richard Wolfe, owner-operator of the Roxy Theatre, couldn’t be more pleased.

“As a second-run theater, this is extremely rare. This might be the first real premiere that we had exclusively to the Lehigh Valley,” says Wolfe.

Bernie Anderson will play the Roxy Theatre organ.

Director and Bethlehem native Dan Roebuck’s “Getting Grace” (2017) had a “pre-premIere” at the Roxy, Banko Cinemas and the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts.

“One of the reasons she’s [Gotzon] doing this nationally is to help theaters that have been hurt by COVID, Wolfe says.

“Her family was regulars at the Roxy. She was in my son’s class when they graduated Northampton. My son, Jason, is planning on coming up because he hasn’t seen her in years.”

Of “The Farmer and the Belle” screening at the Roxy, Wolfe says, “I’m certainly looking forward to it. I think it’s a great thing for Northampton and for the Roxy Theatre. I’m hoping that it will help bring people back out to enjoy the holiday season.”

Information:

http://www.TheFarmerandTheBelle.net; 917-818-4792

https://www.roxytheaternorthampton.com/; 610-262-7699