I cannot remember a time when I did not consider myself a filmmaker - always a camera in hand - even when I could not afford to buy filmstock. My first studio experience was on the 80's classic "The Legend of Billie Jean" assisting Dianna Mitzner with the local casting as well as playing several bit parts on screen. I had only held a super 8mm camera before that experience and I took every opportunity that I could to hang out with the camera operators as well as Director Matthew Robbins - such a gentleman, he gave me fantastic input and advice.

By the mid 90's I continued to make my own short films and relocated from my childhood hometown of Kingsville, TX to Austin where I joined the Austin Cinemaker Co-op - a group of indie directors who shared ideas, crews and equipment. At the Co-op, one of my comedy shorts, "Dinosaur Attack on Kung Fu Island" was selected as a top Texas indie film for 1998 and had a screening at Austin's legendary Alamo - it was also at the Co-op where I was introduced to digital editing (having become quite used to the cutting and splicing of fragile movie film), this digital editing process convinced me to cut out the "middle-man" and shoot everything straight to video.

Moving to New Orleans in early 2001, I formed a small production company to develop the horror films I had always wanted to produce - the 30 minute "City of the Dead" was the first film I Directed under the new venture, it was shown at venues in Dallas, Austin, Orlando, Baton Rouge and became a Halloween standard on local New Orleans television. The success of "City of the Dead" convinced me to step up to HD for my next project. I started writing and planning "Tao of M" with my production partners but also continued to work on outside projects such as "Gene Simmons' Family Jewels" and "The Dukes of Hazzard" feature film.

Fast forward to August 27, 2005 - our production company was in prep for "Tao of M" which I was prepping to Direct for Isis Films when Hurricane Katrina moved into the Gulf of Mexico.

My family had some hard decisions to make. Was Katrina going to hit New Orleans? We had evacuated for Ivan a year earlier and all that did was break us for 2 months. Just weeks earlier, tropical storm Cindy had become a Cat 1 hurricane when it hit the Crescent city and all that we suffered was minor rain and a week without power. The decision to stay was made easier by the lack of opened gas stations and the clogged highways leading out of the city. Given that, my family moved to higher ground, as Katrina was a Cat 5 and our house would fare much worse than with Cindy. At the last minute with no more room in my truck, I decided to leave my Macintosh at the house and instead take the new Sony HD video camera - the resulting historical footage has since been used in Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke" and his sequel "If God is Willing and the Creek Don't Rise" Brook Lapping's "Surviving Katrina", The History Channel's "Mega Disasters", BBC's "Prisoners of Katrina" and virtually every other Katrina Documentary that was produced this past year, the gem being my own "Refuge of Last Resort".

When "Refuge" was shot I had no idea of the magnitude of the hurricane until I saw it firsthand, I made the decision to use the many tapes from our "Tao of M" music video shoot completed just a week before the storm to capture what I saw.

After spending some time back in Texas to regroup - working for "My Network TV" to keep the lights on -I helped form a new production company in Los Angeles through my production contact Long time Producer Al Gomez. I moved my family to Wilmington, NC to develop and shoot on location the swashbuckling "Privateer" with Gomez - based on our 129 page script - full scenes from "Privateer" can be viewed on this site.

While keeping an office location in Los Angeles, North Carolina is where I continue write, edit my projects and work on feature films such as the 2009 Kat Von D thriller "The Bleeding" on whch I directed the EPK for Producer Mike Tadros.

When Frank Capra Jr. passed away Bill Vassar of Screen Gems Studios and the Capra family asked me to produce a memorial video presentation in his remembrance, "Frank was a true gentleman who lived for the craft of film making. His inspiration to all of us is his real legacy". James L. Bills, "Remembering Frank".

Meanwhile back in Los Angeles I Wrote, Directed and served as DP & Editor on several television pilots for former Universal Studios President Donna Smith's Film West production company. "Date Night", "Aspen" and "The Dog Show" were completed and are currently at CAA in the never-ending process of development.

I also found time to Direct some music videos along the way, most notably for Grammy Nominee Phoenix Benjamin's "Baby wake up".

Like a Ship's Captain I believe that a Director must know every bolt of his ship, so using the many tricks I learned working in film I took on Visual Effects duties for a handful of projects including Jason Horton's "Trap" and the Greg Pritikin Sit-Com "Monster in the House".

I continued my well rounded production ritual with Cinematography duties on the feature film "Double Tap", prop design and marketing art for feature films "The Tomb", "Sinatra Club" and Jackie Mason's "In a Pickle" - I even developed several more scripts including "The Bollywood Boys", "Way of the Vampire" and "Harvest" all of which I have Written and will Direct.

"The Bollywood Boys" came from an idea that Producer Al Gomez (writer of the comedy classic "Joy Sticks") had 3 years ago. He let me run with it and by summer of 2008 I had completed the first script. The lead roles of Jerry and Tom (our heroes) were written specifically for David Faustino & Corin Nemec (STAR-VING) who last year, along with their business partner Todd Bringewatt teamed with our production company making "The Bollywood Boys" an AGP / FNB production.

Given the comedic needs of the project I have approached some very talented actors - currently I am in discussions with Hilliary Barbour (The Bold and the Beautiful), Camden Toy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) , Brooke Lewis (Sinatra Club) as well as other talented comedic actors.

"The Bollywood Boys" was inspired by my love for classic movie comedies, writer/directors such as Mel Brooks, Harold Ramis & many others along with charismatic actors that I grew up idolizing - below are just a few examples, the full list would fill ten pages. Click HERE to return to the main page.