FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL:
Will Bryant
Festival Organizer/The Robinson Film Center
(318) 459-4119
Dr. Michelle Glaros
Festival Organizer/Centenary College of Louisiana
(318) 869-5264
***Media Advisory***
2009 LOUISIANA FILM FESTIVAL – STUDENT DIVISION
DETAILS ANNOUNCED
Two-day festival will be held at The Robinson Film Center, April 3-4.
SHREVEPORT, LA – The Louisiana Film Festival – Student Division, an annual presentation of The Robinson Film Center and Centenary College, will be held April 3-4 at The Robinson Film Center in downtown Shreveport.
The festival is free to attend and will include juried screenings of over 50 original short films created by K-12 students from across the United States, as well as special guest appearances by professional filmmakers screening and discussing some of their best-known films. Over $1,500 in cash prizes will be awarded in categories such as Documentary, Animation, Narrative/Drama, and Documentary.
Guest filmmakers for this year’s festival include nine-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Celia Carey, as well as Louisiana Public Broadcasting senior producer Tika Laudun and film and television actor Pruitt Taylor Vince. Ms. Carey will screen the 2008 Emmy Award-winning documentary Mr. Dial Has Something to Say at 9:05 PM on Friday, April 3. Carey will also host a free filmmaking workshop at 11:20 AM on Saturday, April 4.
Ms. Laudun will host a free screening of her LPB documentary A Louisiana Story: The Reverse Angle at 1:15 PM on Saturday, April 4 followed by a rare theatrical screening of Robert Flaherty’s Nobel Prize-winning 1948 documentary A Louisiana Story, the basis of Loudon’s 2008 film. Mr. Vince, a Shreveport resident who has starred in more than 72 films and television programs, will host a screening and discussion of his 1995 film Heavy, in which he co-starred with Liv Tyler, at 7:30 PM on
Friday, April 3.
Admission to all programs except Heavy is free. Admission to Heavy is free for Robinson Film Center Supporting Cast members; normal admission rates apply for non-members.
A special one-hour showcase of the 2009 Louisiana Film Festival – Student Division winners will screen Sunday, April 5 at 2:30 PM. Admission to the winners showcase is free and open to the public.
The Louisiana Film Festival – Student Division has been held each year since 2004, when it debuted on the campus of Centenary College. It is one of the longest-running annual youth media festivals in the southern United States. Films are created by students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, and are judged and evaluated by a panel of professional filmmakers and educators. This year’s panel of judges was headed by Tia Lessin, the Academy Award-nominated producer of such documentaries as Trouble the Water, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Bob Dylan: No Direction Home. For more information about the Louisiana Film Festival – Student Division, visit www.lafilmfest.org.
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