“Remember Yesterday,” a movie filmed in Wilmington, N.C. starring Jana Allen from Alleghany County, won “First Place for Best Feature-Length Film” at the Florence Romance International Film Festival in Italy.
Allen portrays Jenny Hill-Devlin, a successful diner owner who gave up a promising career as an actress to marry and stay at home only to suffer abuse from her husband who turned out to be an alcoholic and cheat.
The film is about second chances, and she receives a second chance for both theatre and love 20 years later.
“Remember Yesterday” falls into the romance genre, and J.R. Rodriguez, a well-known actor in the Fayetteville, N.C. area, wrote and directed the film that was produced by Spanking New Productions.
Allen got her start as an actress in “A Musical Tribute to the Railroad,” a 1992 Stonewall Players’ production at the Historic Stonewall Theatre that was renamed The Historic Masonic Theatre in 2003.
As a sixth grader, she sang “Button’s and Bows” in the two-act musical.
After graduating from Alleghany High School, she earned her B.A. degree in communications from Liberty University and completed a two-year program in Manhattan where she studied the Meisner technique of acting at the William Esper Studio.
She has landed roles on “The Office,” “The Righteous Gemstones,” “Eastbound and Down,” “Why My Child,” “Your Worst Nightmare,” “Get Out,” “The Bleeding,” “The Hollow,” “The Shunning,” “Mr. Mercedes,” “Creep Show,” “Manhunt Unabomber,” “George and Tammy,” and other TV programs and movies.
Allen, a member and emcee for The Virginia Opry, has performed as a vocalist at El Sid’s in Hollywood, at the Mountain Arts Center (Home of The Kentucky Opry), the Dandelion Festival in White Sulphur Springs, the Natural Bridge Historic Hotel and Conference Center, The Historic Masonic Theatre and other venues.
“Remember Yesterday” features Jerry Winsett, Ron Fallica and Jenique Bennett alongside Allen. The movie’s streaming date of Valentine’s Day fits its theme: love lost can be regained.
