Kelly cites three decades in marketing, public relations, and commercial production as the wellspring that enabled her to serve as co-executive producer of "Last Best Hope." Among her roles during the film's six-year odyssey, she has planned and orchestrated three productions in Belgium; applied for more grants than she cares to recall, conducted on-site military history and escape line research at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, learned to maneuver the PBS landscape, and, with co-executive producer David Grosvenor, alternated between head cheerleader and team shrink. She lives and works in Austin, Texas. This is her first feature-length documentary.
"David and I had a dream that began when we first listened to Bill Grosvenor's story as told to Abilene arts patron Bill Wright on an audio cassette tape back in the late 1990s," said Kelly. "We held on to the dream like a Jack Russell with a T-bone. Even during our long dry spells, when no funding was in sight, we refused to quit. The power of this story sustained us."
After years rummaging through the WWII documents and the memories, photo albums, and attics of former Resistance fighters in Belgium, Kelly can hardly remember life before Last Best Hope. "The film has had a lasting impact on all of us. We've been kissed by the courage of extraordinary individuals in Belgium like Michou, Raymond, Nadine, and Marcel. I am humbled and awed in their presence, and feel blessed that their stories are now part of our own."
The film would not have been possible without the interlocking contributions of dozens of people, many of whom entered and exited the project along the way. "I am grateful to everyone who has given part of themselves to this film," Kelly explained, "especially Sebastian Vega whose vision as the director of our first Belgian shoot in 2001 set the tone for the film. Then in 2004, our DP Wilson Waggoner enlisted his business partner, Mat Hames, to join us as director, screenwriter, and editor. Mat is a brilliant creative talent, who transformed the bits and pieces that we had collected into a historically significant and fitting tribute to the Belgian Resistance."
The list of people who deserve a medal for what they've done to bring this film to completion is long, said Kelly. "At the top of the list is our good friend and associate executive producer in Belgium, Walter Verstraeten. Without Walter, none of this could have happened."
