Bastard's Crossing

One of 12 Westerns in 12 Months produced during 2020, this film tells the story of Cam Talcutt, a man who won a trading post in a card game. Now, he’s stuck in the wilderness trying to run it when he learns the freight company who supplies his store won’t be coming anymore. Cam is in a bad spot and might have to do bad things to survive.

The cast features former Mississippi Film Commissioner Ward Emling in the lead role as well as Creek Wilson, Ashleigh Lewis, Bill Luckett, Clark Richey, Jeff Buchwald, Damon Burks, and John Charles Dickson. 

The First of 12 Westerns: Director’s Note

The first of the 12 was supposed to be easy… yeah, right! What writer Joe Pevey and I originally hoped would be a simple Western to start with ended up being as challenging as the rest. It was set in one location with a handful of characters and long dialog scenes like a play. However, it also included several wagons and plenty of horses. These would have been challenging enough to include but there was another unforeseen factor for this first production: weather. It was one of the wettest Januarys in recent Mississippi history. Of course it was… because we were filming!

Produced on a budget of only 20,000 dollars, I am very proud of what we accomplished, especially several of the performances, Christopher Hart’s score, and the overall tone set by Jared’s moody cinematography. 

-Travis Mills