John Hester

Brad Alsobrook was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. He is an avid film buff and DVD collector. Brad always had an interest in filmmaking but never had the opportunity to get it started, until he met Anthony Howald. Anthony, who also had a longtime interest in filmmaking, approached Brad with an idea... The Idea was to make an independent film. That idea also led to the birth of Rusted Sun Films. Rusted Sun Films first attempt at filmmaking was "The Visitor". It was chosen to play at the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2003.

In 2004, Rusted Sun Films would take on their first feature film.  A local actor had managed to convince Brad and Anthony to make his feature script, "A Cowboy's Silver Lining" into their first feature length film. Over six months of weekend filming, they completed filming and editing, making a slot for the premiere showing at the 7th Annual Indie Memphis Film Festival.  The show was the first sell-out in the 7 year history of the festival. 

In 2006 Rusted Sun Films premiered their second feature film, "Divine Manipulation of the Threads", a comedy film about a gang of thieves planning a heist to rob the Federal District Reserve Bank. A series of pulp gangsters come out of the woodwork bringing back events from the past and debts that still have to be paid. Somewhere along the way all of the 'Threads' pull together for a clever heist that seems too good to be true.

In January 2007 Brad and Anthony met with Ken Axmaker to discuss some movie scripts Ken had and they all became instant friends and have been working together ever since.

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In his final semester of college, Ken Axmaker, Jr. realized he wanted to be a film maker. He graduated MTSU with a B.S. in Aerospace Administration, and then attended film school at the University of Memphis where he made several shorts on film. He also worked in such films as The Firm, The People vs. Larry Flint, and Walk the Line. He turned to the still camera in 1996, and became an accomplished photographer.

Ken has been published on the cover of several phone books and in national magazines. His company, Time and Motion Publications, published a calendar of Memphis in 1998 featuring his photographs. He took a five year hiatus from photography and video and film production to be a pilot.

Returning to the film business in 2002, Ken started Time and Motion Productions where he has been producing video productions and photography services for business and individuals. In the spring of 2004 he started Last Train to Memphis Entertainment with Bill Runyan, Ashley Fowler and John Hester. He finished production of his shorts Man-tute and A Waste of 02 in 2004. Man-Tute was selected for the Script-2-Screen Independent Film Festival 2006 and won Best Comedy Runner-Up at that fest. A Waste of O2 was shown in the Indie Memphis Film Festival in 2004 and at the Bare Bones International Film Festival in April 2006.

Ken completed directing and editing the feature film, Service With a Smile in July 2005. Service premiered at the Script-2-Screen Independent Film Festival in October 2006. He also has a part in the upcoming feature film, Curbside Confessions. His 2006 short, Bad People premiered at the Bare Bones International Film Festival in April 2007 and was recently acquired by a European film production company for a re-make. He is busy with the monthly LTTM Shorts Festival that airs on WYPL, channel 18 in Memphis, Tennessee, and with his most recent documentary project, The Memphis Belle - The Final Chapter in Memphis. His future projects include, 5 Shots- The Ronald Baldridge Story, and assisting in the production of his screenplay, Soul Mates which was recently acquired by Rusted Sun Films for filming this fall.

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Tony D’Agostino, a transplanted upstate New Yorker, has been a “damn yankee” in Tennessee since 1984. An avid linguist, Tony has taught English in Israel in 1994 and Hebrew to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in Memphis until 2001. Tony has been politically active in both the Green and Democratic parties and was a Nader elector in 2000 and the Democratic candidate for the State Senate in 2002.

Stressmaster was Tony’s acting debut and he is also in Service with a Smile.

You will be happy to know that he has kept his day job as a Senior Programmer Analyst for Medtronik Sofamor Danek.

Ashley Fowler began creating storyboards and performing gravity-defying action scenes (with dilapidated dolls and overused kung-fu movies) when she was six-years-old. After being banned from most of her neighbors’ houses for staging ghost horror scenes against the backdrop of the community forest (and scaring the heck out of their kids, mind you), her parents enrolled her in church theatre to redirect her energy. From there, she began acting in community theatre from 1990-2000. Lead roles include Little Women, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and 976-LUST, and she was cast in supporting roles for Fame, Twelfth Night, Tartuffe, and Little Red.

During 1996, Ashley joined an improvisational group that combined farces and colloquialisms to illustrate regional heritage. She won the Arkansas Statesman award for extemporaneous speaking that same year. In 1997, she began writing and directing skits, shorts, comedies and melodramas. After training as an amateur boxer from 1997-1999, she choreographed fight scenes for several experimental skits. She studied set design, lighting, writing and directing from 1998-2000. While attending graduate school in 2002, she was accepted to the Delta Symposium Writers’ Conference to discuss her short, Matter of Merit.

Ashley’s independent film work includes lead roles in A Waste of O2 and Stressmaster 2000, and she directed the independent short Shooting Blanks. She completed work on production of Service with a Smile in July 2005 which premiered at the Script-2-Screen Independent Film Festival in October 2006. Ashley most recently directed the short Split Decision which premiered at the Bare Bones International Film Festival in April 2006. Ashley portrayed Sissy in Bad People and hosted several episodes of LTTM's monthly Shorts Fest which airs on WYPL, channel 18 in Memphis, Tennessee.

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J. Lazarus Hawk grew up in Pennsylvania and Maine. His fascination with film and the fantastic began early in life with the world of comic books, and with television series’ such as “THE TWILIGHT ZONE”, “THE OUTER LIMITS”, and “ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS”.

Although his work experience has taken him from restaurants to retail to construction, artistic expressionism has always called to him. In 2001, at the age of 33, his dreams of pursuing a film career were realized when Producer/Director Craig Brewer (“POOR & HUNGRY”, “HUSTLE & FLOW”) provided him with the opportunity to produce his very first film, a short entitled “THE MORNING RITUAL”. That film went on to win the 2001 Indie Memphis Film Festival’s HOMETOWNER AWARD for best short narrative, Honorable Mention at the 2002 Nashville International Film Festival, which in turn led to a screening for the Director’s Guild in Hollywood, and the Mid-South Science Fiction Association’s DARRELL AWARD in 2002.

In 2003 Hawk, who prefers to go by “Lazarus” for short, wrote and recorded the short story “WORDS OF A FATHER” for SV-2’s seventh audio-story collection, “TALES OF OLIVIA NORTON”. That same year he completed a number of commissioned essays and the experimental short film, “TOGETHER FOREVER”.

In 2004, Lazarus was one among a group of photographers and videographers who worked with SV-2 on the “PROJECT 366” video documentary and its companion photo-book.

After a nearly two-year long hiatus, Lazarus has risen again and has acquired numerous credits for 2006. He spent the first half of the year editing his next short film, “US”, (based on a short story idea provided by his brother, screenwriter and author Glenn E. Smith), and finalizing numerous scripts, including “JUST ANOTHER DAY” and “WORDS OF A FATHER”, the latter being an adaptation of his own written work. Both films are scheduled to begin production this fall. He has also served as Director of Photography on “BAD PEOPLE”, written and directed by Ken Axmaker Jr., Director of Photography, actor, and editor on director Don Meyer’s “THE ANCIENT ONE”, and is getting in front of the cameras once again for director Vince Moore’s “THE COP, THE SNITCH, AND A STRIPPER NAMED SHANE”. He will also be joining SV-2 again in September 2006 for their next project, “MEMPHIS 3AM”.

J. Lazarus Hawk’s on screen appearances also include Craig Brewer’s “POOR & HUNGRY”, and Melissa Crouch’s “BLOCK”, which Brewer also produced.

email: jlazarushawk@hotmail.com   IMDb profile

A passion for music and visual media have inspired John Hester to pursue a number of entertainment genres over the last two decades. While attending Kingsbury High School in Memphis, Tennessee, John worked for three years as a recording engineer and musician for the local Memphis music scene. After performing with Metal Smythe from 1989-1991, John began collaborating with a number of local artists, and he was instructed in blues, rock, metal, and alternative music styles. An early fascination with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back led to an intensive independent study of the special effects designs of Rick Baker, and he went on to finish a professional course in prosthetics and make-up in the mid 90’s. In 1998, John began his own production company, JEP Visual Images, and by 2002 he merged his business into The Video Mizer, a digitally based independent film and video corporation that specializes in visual and special effects.

As a partner with Last Train to Memphis Entertainment, he has completed a number of projects including the experimental short Appointed Time for which he wrote and directed. John’s special effects background and digital technology won him the roles of director of photography, editor, and special effects supervisor on A Waste of O2. His audio background has enabled him to serve as sound engineer on several local projects including Rookie Bookie and Shooting Blanks.

John can be seen in the lead role of Man-Tute, which won Best Comedy, Runner-Up at the Script-2-Screen Independent Film Fest in October 2006 , and he was a supporting actor in Stressmaster 2000. He also worked on cinematography and production of Service with a Smile which premiered at the Script-2-Screen Independent Film Festival in October 2006.

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Marguerite is a life long Cubs fan who was raised in Northwest Indiana. She moved away from home in 1975 and lived in several places before landing in Memphis, Tennessee. Her 25 year journey from Indiana to Tennessee has been saved in an old army footlocker. Marguerite gets her artistic gene from her talented father who played the coronet. While her brothers also received his artistic abilities and are both musicians, Marguerite’s talents took a different turn into the photography field. Her time is filled with acting classes, auditions, and photo shoots for indie musicians including Gurufish, The King Cadillac Band, Falling from Gray and many more . She recently added another endeavor to her long list of accomplishments - writing for a new magazine, “Talent Memphis”.  Marguerite has an internet radio show which airs every Tuesday night at 7pm. Her show features the talents of Memphis musicians, editors, writers, and more.  Marguerite recently guest hosted a segment of the Last Train to Memphis Entertainment Film Festival.

www.MySpace.com/MemphisMeg
www.BlogTalkRadio.com/meggymoon
www.daisyscreations57.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2583986/

Anthony Howald started Rusted Sun Films with his friend Brad Alsobrook in 2002.  As an audio engineer and musician, Howald had dreams of putting together a short film "just to see if he could do it."  That short project became RSF's first short film, THE VISITOR (2003).  The short gathered some acclaim as the production quality was far above and beyond that of a first time effort. Through making his first production he become engrossed in Memphis' local film community.  Making friends through actors and NO-BUDGET filmmakers alike, he coined what is now referred to as "The Rusted Sun Films Family."

Howald was later approached by Bevan Bell to help put A COWBOY'S SILVER LINING (2004) into production.  Howald would serve as Co-Director, Executive Producer, Audio Supervisor, and Assistant Camera Operator on the project.  Through a heavy process of overcoming obstacles with No-Budget, A COWBOY'S SILVER LINING went on to win an award at the Barebones International Independent Film Festival.

Howald and Bell would again work together on completing, DIVINE MANIPULATION OF THE THREADS (2006).  An agreement was made and Anthony would this time take the helm as Director of the picture as well as his other duties as Production Manager, Assistant Camera Operator, Audio Supervisor, and appear in the film through a cameo taking on the silent role of Sebastian the Gay Cowboy. 
Howald continues to use Rusted Sun Films as a platform to produce high-quality, low-to-no-budget films in the Memphis, TN area. 

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Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee Artist/illustrator Sharon Jones has been working in the home plans business for the last four years as a draftsman. At a very early age, coloring books and the freedom to choose what a picture should look like fascinated her, and at the age of seven she was awarded a pack of colored pencils as second prize in a Christmas card design contest. She had a natural affinity for the pencils, and hasn’t strayed from them since.

At age ten, Ms. Jones began flute lessons, which served her well several years later when she began studying piano, but the need to continue drawing was always there, and in 2005 she turned away from reproducing magazine photos and focused her energies on recreating the works of several private photographers.

In December of 2005, Ms. Jones had the opportunity to conduct her first public showing at Borders Books and Music, Memphis, displaying a dozen pieces based on the original works of J. Lazarus Hawk and other local amateur photographers. Considered a great success, that showing not only led directly to Ms. Jones being privately commissioned to produce a number of works, but also inspired her to extend her artistic reach. She is currently seeking additional venues to display her works, and is focusing on a project that promises to reflect her impression of the graphic novel entitled “THE BOWELS OF MEDITATION”.

In addition to her art, Ms. Jones is the author of several short stories and over a hundred poems, and has recently begun indulging her latent interest in photography. She served as Still Photographer on the sets of  J. Lazarus Hawk’s short film, “US”, and Ken Axmaker Jr.’s film, “BAD PEOPLE”, doubling as Production Assistant on both as well. She also served as a Production Assistant on the September episode of Last Train’s televised film festival.

This September, Ms. Jones will be cutting her teeth as an amateur videographer when she joins J. Lazarus Hawk and the “Last Train” crew on SV-2’s “MEMPHIS 3 AM” project.

www.myspace.com/26026642

Wasabi Jones is no stranger to performance. He competed in national amateur body building competitions from 2000-2002. After studying acting and performance, he began a professional acting career in 2003. His television debut was a spotlight on MTV's True-Life: I Am a Gamer in March 2003. In January 2004, Wasabi was cast as a principle character in Rookie Bookie, an independent feature filmed in Memphis, Tennessee. During the Summer of 2004, he played a supporting role in Independent B, and he was subsequently cast as a principle character in Shooting Blank. Wasabi later portrayed a police officer in the dark comedy Service With a Smile. He is featured in a leading role for A Waste of O2 and its sequel Bad People, which will be hitting the film festival circuit in 2007.

Wasabi’s short Split Decision was presented April 2006 at the Bare Bones International Film Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He recently had a supporting role in the FOX pilot, Southern Comfort. He has leading roles in Eat and in Curbside Confessions; both will be in production this year. Wasabi recently appeared as the guest host for the LTTM Shorts Festival which airs 5 times a week on WYPL TV-18 in Memphis.

Wasabi is represented by Pat West in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Donald was born and raised in Chicago where he studied art and drama in city colleges.In the early 60's he worked at Playboy as an art director and later free-lanced at local ad agencies designing ad campaigns and designing print literature for various corporations such as Gillette and The Chicago Tribune.

His early theater work included roles in productions such as Grease, Bell - Book and Candle, The Camino Real and Diary of Anne Frank. Donald then relocated to Little Rock and spent 9 years as a creative director and art director with ad agencies that specialized in consumer advertising. When he moved to California in 1980, Donald continued his career in advertising and studied acting, landing some roles in productions that his ex-wife was involved with as a screenwriter. He also drew story boards and assisted Universal Studios with various concepts and art direction in a free lance capacity. 
 
Currently Donald resides in Memphis, Tennessee with his wife, Lydia and is active in the acting community here. He has been cast in several films such as, "Walk The Line," "Forty Shades of Blue," "Southern Comfort," " The Garden," "Heartstrings," and has recently begun to write and direct his own productions. His film and design business is called Don Meyers Digital Design. 

Donald has a daughter, Lea, who lives in Bloomington, Indiana and a son, Raymond, who resides with his family in Frisco, Texas. 

Nancy Ellen Mills was born and raised in Hollywood and is now a Tinseltown expatriate in Memphis. She did commercials and modeling for a while -- including an appearance on "The Richard Simmons Show" -- but then took 25 years off to raise her children.

She recently completed a role in Tom Anton's "The Pardon," starring Jaime King and Jason Lewis, set for release in 2008. In the acclaimed 2006 film "Come Early Morning," she provoked a bar fight with star Ashley Judd.

Nancy also was in the 2006 TV pilot "Southern Comfort" and was featured in the 2005 indie "Rookie Bookie" filmed in Memphis.

She was in Jon W. Sparks' short films "Arrogant Dead People" and "Kung Fu Fighting: A Literary Interpretation," in 2006 and was also seen in Ira Sachs' Sundance Festival prizewinner "Forty Shades of Blue."

Nancy is most proud of doing a series of 22 audio recordings of selections from "The Poem Of The Man-God" by Maria Valtorta and produced by the 101 Foundation. Download them here: http://www.advancedchristianity.com/Pages/Turton/Turton_002.htm

In June 2007 she hosted the Last Train To Memphis Shorts Fest on the public library channel. Nancy has also worked with David Tankersley in his Bench Series productions and she is currently involved in a documentary project on Tennessee Walking Horses.

As if this weren't enough, there's lots more that makes Nancy unique. One of her daughters, Caresse, is married to well-known real estate developer Rusty Hyneman. Another, Candace, is owner of the well-known housecleaning service Two Chicks and a Broom. And Tomi Kali, the youngest offspring in the bevy of beauties, has a big, glittery world ahead of her.

Nancy is also a raw foodist (rhymes with nudist), meaning she eschews cooked dishes. She has a great husband, a cool house and is a force of nature.

Nancy's IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1925563/

Beth Neeley’s acting career started with the short film From the Sky It Came. She then did a commercial for the Stratosphere Casino in Las Vegas. Beth can be seen as the “Candi”, the hooker in Service With a Smile. She left Memphis in the fall of 2006 for the West Coast to pursue other interests.

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         Bill in Appointed Time

Bill Runyan was born in Boston, Massachusetts. and spent his early years in upstate New York before being forcibly removed by his parents to Memphis, Tennessee at the tender age of eight. After two years of failed attempts to shoot himself back with a giant slingshot, he accepted his fate and has been here more or less ever since.

Bill has always enjoyed writing and has written four screenplays: Tattoo, A Bad Choice in Girlfriends, The Lawyers that Wouldn't Die and Ruthless. After several abortive attempts he founded Last Train to Memphis Entertainment along with co-founders Ken Axmaker, Ashley Fowler and John Hester. He has already made one of his shorts: Stressmaster 2000 and facilitated the production of A Waste of O2, which was shown in the 2004 Indie Memphis Film Festival. Bill completed work on production of Service with a Smile which premiered at the Script-2-Screen Independent Film Festival in October 2006.

This is only the beginning of what is certain to be an illustrious career for Bill.

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Todd H. Sims (moniker “Kngofnoiz”, i.e. King of Noise), a member of ASCAP, has been involved in music and the recording of music for 24 years. He holds a B.S. degree in Music Industry with an emphasis on Voice from the University of Southern Mississippi and he studied Opera Performance and Acting on scholarship for three years at Delta State University. Todd also studied under composer Luigi Zaninelli, the Music Industry Director Norbert Carnovale and Vivian Wood, Soprano at USM. Todd held a 9-week internship at Lunar Productions, Memphis, Tennessee. Worked on training films and commercials in Memphis. Through that company he was able to be behind the scenes on several shoots and live programs, as well as sit in on studio time at Ardent Studios and Powerhouse Studios.  

Todd has had singing/acting roles in performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium (his first opera and he played a mute!), West Side Story, Trouble in Tahiti, and The People vs. Larry Flynt. He was also a singing waiter at Bravo’s Restaurant. His original music has been featured in the feature length film Rookie Bookie, shorts Shooting Blanks and A Waste of O2, a City of Hattiesburg Promotional Film, several local commercials and corporate events including the ADDY Award winning PSA “Recycle”, several plays performed by local theater groups in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Regional Habitat for Humanity Conference Multi-media presentation.   The Kngofnoiz has been a member of several modern rock and experimental bands in the various roles of lead singer, keyboardist and guitarist for Human Zoo, Backward Trance, Obscene Jesters, and The Love Pumps.

He had his acting debut as “The Pimp” in Service with a Smile. Several of Todd’s musical compositions will be featured in Service with a Smile. Todd recently portrayed “Leon” in the short Split Decision which was in the Bare Bones International Film Festival in April 2006. He is busy composing music for several independent films and has the role of drug dealer in Bad People.

Todd is the owner/operator of Barking Cow Production Studios and Kngofnoiz Music Publishing.

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Danny Stanford is a filmmaker from Horn Lake, Mississippi. His company Def MF Productions has made three short films— Wilhelm Pachinko, Palsy, and The Galapogos Brothers which form The Necktie Trilogy. Danny appreared as “Death” in LTTM’s short Split Decision and recently portrayed a drug dealer in the short film Bad People. He is currently in production of his feature film Victorious.

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