Federal Way filmmaker prepares to launch ‘Amber Alert’

Kerry Bellessa grew up renting movies from Cousin’s Video near Hoagie’s Corner, sneaking into Gateway Theater to watch his first R-rated movie in high school, and worked at AMC South theater as one of his first jobs.

By Keelin Everly-Lang • September 7, 2024 7:30 am

Federal Way local Kerry Bellessa is the director, writer and producer of “Amber Alert,” a major film coming out Sept. 27 on all major digital streaming platforms and select theaters.

The thriller follows two everyday people who spot a car matching an Amber Alert and decide to follow it. Hayden Panettiere and Tyler James Williams star in the film, and Kerry’s wife, Summer Bellessa, is a producer on the show.

These nostalgic places may be gone from Federal Way now, but sparked a career that brought Kerry to this film.

Kerry attended Twin Lakes and Panther Lake elementaries, Illahee Middle School, and both Federal Way and Decatur high schools. His family still lives in Federal Way.

For Kerry’s next film, he hopes to have it set closer to home. To help him get there, Kerry said that streaming a movie on opening weekend can have a huge impact.

“Go ahead and watch it the weekend it opens to help out a good old local guy so we can come back and make a film in Seattle,” Kerry said.

While Kerry’s films have so far been in the thriller genre, he said he also enjoys more goofy comedies, like a short film he made in college called “The Gardener” that features an aspiring mortician who accidentally loses the body he’s supposed to deliver on his first day on the job.

“I like that intense feeling that it gives people and that it keeps you on your toes. I usually like things that are like based in reality, and that could happen,” he said about thrillers. “Amber Alert” is the perfect example of this because it’s an example of ” two ordinary people that are in an extraordinary situation,” he said.

This version of the film Amber Alert is another version of a film of the same name that Kerry created in 2012. He calls that film his “proof of concept” for this one. With just $5,000, his wife Summer and a friend or two, the couple created a feature-length film exploring the same plot.

The idea came to them on a drive from Los Angeles to Arizona when they were notified of an Amber Alert. Although they didn’t see the car in the alert like the characters in both films, they ended up having an hour and a half conversation about what they would do if they did.

After scouring the internet to make sure no one else had made a film with a similar plot, Kerry said it was Summer’s idea to go ahead and make the film.

“I had visions of getting $20 million and making a beautiful film with a beautiful cinematographer,” but Summer was the one who said “we only have a couple thousand, lets just go do this,” Kerry said.

That first film is a found-footage style, and Kerry shot it on a camcorder, mostly from the back seat, while Summer and their friend Chris Hill acted in it.

“We only had $5,000, so we kind of had to make it how we did. And now I love it. I think it’s phenomenal, and that we did a great job with it. And it is great little proof of concept film that I’m very proud of and stand by,” he said.

Now he is incredibly grateful that he did it and encourages film makers who are earlier in their career to just “go do it.”

“With technology right now, you can do anything. Just go get some friends and go make something,” he said.