Cast / Crew
Mathew Lotto ("Thibodeaux") resides in San Jose, CA, where he is striving to obtain his double major in film and photography at San Jose State University. This is Mathew's debut feature film, however he has appeared in a variety of short films and print ads. His unique look and yearning for the arts have only fueled his aspirations. Mathew continues to develop his passion for acting though diversifying his roles in film, challenging the chameleon that he is. In his leisure time Mathew enjoys travel, skiing, (WOW) for the Horde, and spending time with his family. "Each new character I play provides an opportunity to live another life, and that is sexy."
J. William McMichael ("Todd") comes from the famous San Francisco Grand Guignol theatre troupe the Thrillpeddlers. He functions as an actor and blood effects tech and has followed his crew to the Hypnodrome SF, New York (with The Cockettes), Burning Man (married in first all-Thrillpeddler wedding). William works in special effects and stage combat. He teaches the same to children every summer. William really enjoys pretend swordfights, so if you meet him you should challenge his imaginary honor.
Terri J. Freedman ("Emmy"), currently a working actress in Los Angeles, returns to San Francisco to be a part of projects like A Lower Power and currently can be seen as a series regular on the hit web series EXIT Stage Left. Additionally, she has produced spoof shorts and web series on YouTube. Her series French is Super surpassed 10,000 hits recently. The other half of Terri J.'s life is devoted to environmental causes — cleaning beaches with Heal the Bay, writing to Congress for Environment CA, and signing petitions for Care2Act. She sees acting as another way of saving the planet.
Rafe Morgan Kossak ("Steve") is a 23-year-old actor who makes his San Francisco film debut in A Lower Power. A previous student of George Maguire and Carla Spindt at Solano College's ATP program, he is primarily trained as a singer. His recent works include Playing Rick/Loraine in Solano's Batboy, playing Troy in Disney's High School Musical with Headliner's Studio, co-starring with Rick Johnson as Sirius in Star Wars: Resurrection and directing two shows in upstate New York. Rafe is currently serving our country in the United States Air Force and hopes to continue a side career with performance after attaining his master's degree.
Adrian Anchondo ("Mas") makes his feature film debut in A Lower Power. Previous roles in theater include: Harun Al Rashid (Understudy) in Arabian Nights at Berkeley Repertory Theater CA, Roberto in Edenville at the Emerging Artists Theater NY (For which he was nominated by the NY Innovative Theater Awards for Best Supporting Actor), and as Ramon in Love! Valour! Compassion! at Civic Theater of Allentown, PA. Adrian attended the Williamstown Theater Festival in 2005. He is a graduate of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Education and a minor in Theater Arts.
Donald Joseph ("Hank") has been active in theatre and film for almost 30 years. He has worked in the Bay Area as well as New York and Los Angeles, on every level of film from independent to major studio releases as well as television and cable documentaries, playing a variety of characters from doctors, lawyers, cops, bad guys, good guys, wise guys, fathers and grandfathers. Although he loves drama, comedy is his first love.
Gigi Guizado ("Stormy") brings street cred to on-camera mom roles (Colma: The Musical, Soledad Is Gone Forever, American Soil) by drawing from personal experience. She summons the seriousness of hospital situations regularly as a standardized patient, improvising with student doctors at Stanford. The two decades Gigi spent studying and teaching dance, plus her B.A. in Lyric Theatre (SF State), and years of strutting the boards in Bay Area theatre companies have all contributed to her knack for physical humor. Her syndicated "You Can Dance – Office Girl" TV commercial, in demand by radio stations across the country, was improvised on the spot. Little known fact: Gigi met her husband while singing in his rock band.
Robert O'Geen (Director, Executive Producer / Producer, Editor, Sound Editor) is half of the San Francisco-based partnership Hidden Deadly Productions. He directed the HDP short films CrossWalk, The Point of Boxes, and the "Star Squire vs. the Destructo-Ray" Pilot Trailer. In his professional work for San Francisco public-television station KQED, he edited the documentary Hope on the Street, which was nominated for a 2003 San Francisco/Northern California Area Emmy Award. He has 20 years of television/film experience including directing, producing, camera, editing and graphics/effects work.
Tim Bland (Writer, Executive Producer / Producer, Assistant Director) is half of the San Francisco-based partnership Hidden Deadly Productions. He wrote the screenplays for the HDP short films CrossWalk and The Point of Boxes. He was a founder of the San Francisco improv comedy group Dojo Fabuloso. By day, he is a web user-interface designer for an international press-release distribution company. Before that, he was an editor, designer, and reporter for newspapers in San Francisco and his birth state, Kentucky.
Dana Cory (Producer) is a producer and performer based out of San Francisco. She is third-generation show-business and grew up on the set of The Waltons, learning her first (of many) jokes from Will Geer. Over the past 20 years Dana has worked in music, live theatre, film and television, winning awards and critical acclaim, but never the lottery. She was a founder of the comedy troupe Dojo Fabuloso in the late 1990s. Dana is single and according to friends and family, "quite a catch."
James J. Yi (Director of Photography) was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in San Francisco. In 1993, he moved to Southern California to study writing and film, receiving a Writer's Day Festival Award in 1996. After several years in Seattle, where he free-lanced in music and film production, he returned to school in 2003 and received his Certificate in Digital Video Production, specializing in HD and Digital Filmmaking. In 2006, he gained critical acclaim for his work as DP and Editor of Courage Doesn't Ask, a film that screened at nearly 40 festivals, including Cannes, and received several nominations and awards. He is working on a long term project with Qasim Basir called Mooz-lum, due in production by early 2009.
Matthew Bridges (Associate Producer, Assistant Director, "Gary") is proving to be adept at working creatively on both sides of the camera, mixing a love of acting with an eye for production. Matthew recently held an associate producer and acting role on another indie feature film, Burn Like Fire, and worked as assistant director and lead actor in Flight to Sinai, another San Francisco-based film. Audiences are also getting to know him thanks to his role on EXIT Stage Left, an improv-based web series. Other film and theatre credits include Oklahoma, The Curious Savage, Sweet Charity, and Gus Van Sant's Milk. Matthew spends his time between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
H.P. Mendoza (Original Score), a native of San Francisco, is the director, writer, editor, and composer of the 2009 movie musical Fruit Fly as well as screenwriter, composer, and co-star of the acclaimed 2005 indie film Colma: The Musical. He is producer and editor and composed original music for 2011's Longhorns, and is writer of Yes, We're Open, in post-production as of summer 2011. His also scored and edited the 2008 experimental film Option 3.
