Married independent filmmakers Tom Anton and Sandi Russell are screening their second feature film, The Pardon, a 1930s and ’40s crime drama, on Tuesday, January 13, 2015.
The Pardon exemplifies our universal need to be loved and to be forgiven, portrayed in the unlikely but true story of Toni Jo Henry (Jaime King), a woman tried for the crime of murder in 1942 in the state of Louisiana.
The Pardon screens 7 p.m. Tuesday, January 13 at the Grace Centre. Parking is plentiful and there is graduated seating to provide the best viewing experience. A Question & Answer period with the filmmakers will follow the screening.
“Grace Centre is a great venue for us. They have been very generous in providing a large screen and a state of the art projector to screen our films,” Anton says.
Based in Brevard, former New Orleans residents Anton and Russell have been promoting their film throughout Louisiana and have recently retained Shoreline Entertainment to assist in securing a distribution deal.
The period drama stars Jaime King (Pearl Harbor, Hart of Dixie) as Henry. John Hawkes, an Oscar nominee for his role in Winter’s Bone, and co-star with Helen Hunt in last year’s much-acclaimed The Sessions, co-stars as Henry’s accomplice, Horace “Arkie” Finnon Burks.
Hawkes won the 2013 Independent Spirit Award for his role in The Sessions, beating Bradley Cooper, star of the Oscar-winning Silver Linings Playbook.
“John was great to work with,” director Anton said during a promotional visit to Baton Rouge. “He’s the most humble actor and he gave it his all. It was a joy working with John, Jamie King and T.J. Thyne (TV’s Bones). We had a great cast and crew.”
Jason Lewis, whose credits include Mr. Brooks, The Jacket, Brothers and Sisters and Sex and the City, co-stars as Claude “Cowboy” Henry, the boxer who falls in love with and marries Henry after they meet in a Louisiana brothel.
“The story intrigued us,” Russell said. “So we started to research it. We got our hands on court documents. We read the court transcripts. And because it was such a sensational story, it got a lot of news coverage at the time of the crime.”
Like Anton and Russell’s 2006 film, the New Orleans-set romantic drama At Last, The Pardon is based on a true story.
“When you have a film based on a true story,” Anton said, “people are like, ‘This really happened?’ There are so many interesting stories in real life that you just can’t make it up.”
Russell adds, “Toni Jo’s story is a story of hope, a story of love and a story of redemption, as she discovers the true strength within herself and, with the help of a priest, Father Richard (TJ Thyne) is able to face her life with a calm and peace that defies explanation.
Anton and Russell have more film projects in the works.
“I’m pinching myself that I get to do this,” the 60-year-old Anton said. “It’s a passion. All my friends are getting ready to retire but I’m just starting.”
The Pardon, Tuesday, January 13, 2015 at 7 p.m. at the Grace Centre, 495 Cardinal Road in Mills River, just South of the Asheville Airport. For more information or to reserve tickets, call (828) 885-5354 or go to www.wncfilmsociety.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the door for $10.
