Filmmaker Statement

I am so very proud of our talented and dedicated cast and crew featuring comedian Juston McKinney (The Tonight Show, Comedy Central) in the lead role and Director of Photography Ben Heald (Academy Award® Best Picture Winner CODA, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody). I'm honored that, prior to production, my script for MARS HILL BAIT AND AMMO won the Screenplay Competition for Best Short Script at the 9th Annual Other Worlds Film Festival in Austin, Texas, where the announcement called it "A fun, trim little tale full of fun characters and lots of action! Keeps you guessing and doesn't let up on the suspense. Part sci-fi, part monster movie, featuring a creature rarely seen on screen," the Silver Prize out of 660 submissions worldwide in the Short Film category of the 19th edition of the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, and was selected as a Finalist in the HollyShorts Film Festival Screenplay Competition. The one-sentence premise for MARS HILL BAIT AND AMMO won The Film Fund’s 2023 narrative competition for post-production completion funding. Our actor who portrays the Medicine Man is indigenous, his costuming is authentic and we cleared both the script and storyline involving the Algonquin legend of the Wendigo with members of the Native American community. Although the film is a comedy, it is important to us that those indigenous elements are treated respectfully.