Tucson Bernie Sanders fan wants to share miniseries with senator

Alecia Vasquez from El Inde Arizona

March 3, 2023

In “Saving Bernie,” a miniature Bernie Sanders is kidnapped to prevent him from disrupting the 2020 presidential election. (Courtesy Linda Chorney)

While many people spent the COVID-19 quarantine binging TV shows, Tucson singer-songwriter Linda Chorney spent hers making TV.

The two-time Grammy nominee spent 2019 and 2020 filming “Saving Bernie,” an 11-part mini-series about Bernie Sanders that she hopes to share with the senator on Sunday, March 5, during his presentation at the Tucson Festival of Books.

Sanders, the senior senator from Vermont, will be in Tucson to discuss his new book, “It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.” Chorney will be in the audience after reserving a spot as soon as reservations were made available to the public.

A longtime supporter of Sanders, Chorney independently filmed the series. The fictional story is about her mission to save the then-Democratic presidential candidate after he was shrunken by a Russian bot and kidnapped because he was too much of a threat to the “president” during the 2020 campaign.

The series, which is available on Vimeo on demand, has Chorney traveling the globe looking for the mini Bernie and an antidote to restore him to normal size.

Tucson Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Linda Chorney made a mini-series about Bernie Sanders during the pandemic. She hopes to give him a copy when he appears at the Tucson Festival of Books on Sunday, March 5. (Courtesy of Linda Chorney)

Chorney traveled to 12 countries to film the series, including Mexico, Malaysia, Cambodia and Belize. She also included footage from attending his rally in Phoenix, where she said she was able to get to the front by pretending to be the media.

In addition to the “Saving Bernie” series, Chorney also paid homage to the former presidential hopeful in her song “For the people.”

Chorney said she plans to upload “Saving Bernie” to a thumb drive and present it to Bernie Sanders on Sunday.

“I think he will laugh his ass off,” Chorney said. “He works so hard and he deserves a good laugh.”

She also added that the story is meant to be a silly and fun escape from reality no matter which side of the political spectrum you subscribe to.

Chorney also wants to ask Sanders questions during his presentation, including how he would advise younger generations to prepare to take on crises such as climate change and the increasing political division.

Sanders will be speaking at 4 p.m. Sunday in the North Ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center on campus.

*El Inde Arizona is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.

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