Elias Hamilton, left, and Thomas L. Townsend
By Gina Malone
On Saturday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m., Missy Bell’s debut feature film Erased, a Mouse House Productions work, premieres at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts. Doors open and the red carpet is rolled out at 7 p.m. The event will include live music and a community mixer following the screening.
For Bell, an Asheville resident, the hope-core drama is the culmination of 25 years working in theater and her desire to direct. “I was on a long drive with my husband, Michael, discussing the seeming impossibility of me ever directing a feature film,” Bell says. “I’d been turned down for several jobs, all saying that I needed to prove I could handle a feature before I would be given work on a feature. It was frustrating, one of those chicken-and-egg impossibilities.”
She and Michael began Mouse House Productions in 2019. It was, she says, “a means to produce my own work and to begin the creation of a village of folks who wanted to work in a similar fashion and who shared the same values in production and ethical practice.” The company ensures that everyone working on its films shares in the production’s profits.
For her first feature film, “I decided to put together a script that would highlight two actors I’ve worked with regularly and who are both phenomenally talented: Thomas L. Townsend and Elias Hamilton,” Bell says.
Townsend plays Evan, a 30-something businessman suddenly presented with the 18-year-old son, played by Hamilton, that he abandoned at birth. “I think the biggest thing I want people to understand from my character is that Evan didn’t really know who he was at the beginning of the film,” Townsend says. “I’m not going to spoil it, but I think it’s important that young men look at my character and understand that it’s okay to feel your emotions. Don’t cut yourself off from others and feel like you have to stuff everything down and put on a facade.” Townsend’s credits include stage plays, short films and features. He also co-starred in the ABC crime drama Will Trent.
Erased offers audiences hope, Bell says. “Hope that it’s not too late to change. It’s not too late to say you’re sorry. It’s not too late to pivot and try again. That the parts of yourself you buried in order to be accepted are the very parts that make you special.”
In addition to the inherent challenges in making a film, the cast and crew were well into pre-production when Helene hit. “Our production designer Isabel Engel started out with a crew and ended up doing everything alone because all of her crew lived in Asheville,” Bell says. “She was in Winston-Salem and escaped the devastation. In order to help us all, she took over every single task.” Although water was still an issue on their screen test day, they got drinkable water just before production began.
“Every person who worked on this film did so because they love the story or they love the way Mouse House does things or a combination of these,” Bell says. “They worked so hard and are all so talented.”
Mouse House recently launched a mentoring program for first-time directors. A short titled Arcadia Village, directed by Engel, is already in pre-production. Several other screenplays are in development, including Ruins, a feminist slasher about learning to love.
“This event is the launchpad for a massive tour of the film across the country,” Bell says of the premiere of Erased, “and we are excited to celebrate that beginning with our own community in Asheville.”
Learn more at MouseHouse.Productions. Premiere tickets are $40 and are available at WorthamArts.org/events.
