Michael Alan Smith

I was born on July 8th, 1966 at Independence Regional Hospital in Independence Missouri. Independence is located just a few miles outside of Kansas City Missouri.

HISTORY OF MY HOMETOWN--
Independence was originally inhabited by Missouri and Osage Indians, followed by the Spanish and a brief French tenure. It became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Lewis and Clark recorded in their journals that they stopped in 1804 to pick plums, raspberries, and wild apples at a site that would later form part of the city.

Independence was founded on March 29, 1827 and quickly became an important frontier town. Independence was the farthest point westward on the Missouri River where steamboats or other cargo vessels could travel, due to the convergence of the Kansas River with the Missouri River approximately six miles west of town, near the current Kansas-Missouri border. Independence immediately became a jumping-off point for the emerging fur trade, accommodating merchants and adventurers beginning the long trek westward on the Santa Fe Trail.

In 1831, members of the Latter Day Saint movement began moving to the Jackson County, Missouri area. Shortly thereafter, founder Joseph Smith, Jr. declared a spot west of the Courthouse Square to be the place for his prophesied temple of the New Jerusalem, in expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. Tension grew with local Missourians until the Latter Day Saints were driven from the area in 1833. Several branches of this movement gradually returned to the city, with many making their headquarters there. These include the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and the Restoration Branches.

Independence saw great prosperity from the late 1830s through the mid-1840s, while the business of outfitting pioneers boomed. Between 1848 and 1868, it was a hub of the Central Route to California. On March 8, 1849, the Missouri General Assembly granted a home-rule charter to the town and on July 18, 1849, William McCoy was elected as its first mayor. In the mid-1800s an Act of the United States Congress defined Independence as the start of the Oregon Trail.

Independence saw two important battles during the Civil War: the first on August 11, 1862 when Confederate soldiers took control of the town, and the second in October 1864, which also resulted in a Southern victory. The war took its toll on Independence and the town was never able to regain its previous prosperity, although a flurry of building activity took place soon after the war. The rise of nearby Kansas City also contributed to the town's relegation to a place of secondary prominence in Jackson County, though Independence has retained its position as county seat until the present day.



President Harry S Truman grew up in Independence, and in 1922 was elected judge of the County Court of Jackson County, Missouri (an administrative, not judicial, post). Although he was defeated for reelection in 1924, he won back the office in 1926 and was reelected in 1930. Truman performed his duties diligently, and won personal acclaim for several popular public works projects, including an extensive series of fine roads for the growing use of automobiles, the building of a new County Court building in Independence, and a series of twelve Madonna of the Trail monuments to pioneer women dedicated across the country in 1928 and 1929. He would later return to the city after two terms as President. His wife, First Lady Bess Truman, was born and raised in Independence, and both are buried there.



The Harry S Truman National Historic Site (Truman's home) and the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum are both located in Independence, as is one of Truman's boyhood residences.




Independence continues to be of great importance to the Latter Day Saint movement and is the headquarters of the Community of Christ, the second-largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. This church has built a striking temple in Independence, and also maintains a large auditorium and other buildings nearby. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormons") operates a sizable visitors' center adjacent to the Community of Christ Temple, which is located directly across the street from the original Temple Lot designated by Joseph Smith in 1830. The Lot itself is occupied by a small white-frame church building that serves as the headquarters and local meeting house for the Church of Christ (Temple Lot).

My impressionable years were spent 200 miles to the north in Omaha Nebraska. There I met a lot of great friends that even to this day I still speak to.



You know how when you have highschool friends and after school you just grow apart. I did with most but a few stuck around, like my BFF Jason Bazemore (who helped Larry and I on the Chinese witch subplot) and Jeff Burton, who I am helping him film a pilot for a Starz Network show called, "DIESEL" this summer. This is where I made several short films with Jeff.



Including "THE CHARM" about a guy, in the mddle of nowhere, dying of thirst, comes along a "Lemonade stand" with a guy manning it (yours truely in a riveting role, haha) tell the guy dying of thirst, he's got something better then a glass of lemonade. He had a charm that can bring anything you say to life or come true. Greed getting the best of the guy, he takes the chance on the charm. Wishes for a lot of water and poof he ends up in a pool. Problem is, he can't swim. He got his water, but it killed him. The moral of the story. DON"T BE SO FUCKING GREEDY! lol



My next production was a little more organized but still cheesy as hell. It's the 1988 sci-fi actioner, "SPECIAL FORCES : 2037" in which our hero (ME again) Lt. Rick McCormick leads an elite team of crack space commandos to a forest planet to rescue Earth's ambassador from the vile clutches of space terrorist Senor Alpo. Yes, it was as silly as it sounds but we played it straight. It was fun!!


It was seven years before I went behind the camera. In the fall of 1995 I went into production on a horror film called "DEAD OF NIGHT".



It was strictly volunteer and my cast and crew managed to show up for one weekend. We never finished the film. It would of been descent, I think but of course, we'll never know. The story was weak, one dimentional and pretty basic. Not a ringing endorsement, is it? Ironically, this was the film I wanted to re-boot last summer and somehow and luckily it transformed into DIABOLICAL.



It was the story of an escaped lunitic who killed his own father and goes on a bloody rampage in a rural area. A group of 20 somethings go to a secluted house for a big party but they are NOT ALONE! We had fun that weekend. Shot three major action sequences. But like I said, the production died there after.