World Premiere Of SPARKY & BUTCH In The Louisiana Film Prize

Short film SPARKY & BUTCH will premiere in The Louisiana Prize Fest, a festival celebrating film, music, and food in Northern Louisiana.

Prize Fest is an unparalleled street festival experience in Shreveport and Bossier City featuring film, music, food, and community. It's a festival where people can cut loose and enjoy unique experiences with friends old and new. Since its inaugural year in 2012, Prize Fest has become a local must-do event and has received national recognition for the work of participating artists and the festival itself. Prize Fest occupies many venues and streets throughout downtown Shreveport's growing West Edge Arts District, which is home to a growing number of organizations and locally-owned businesses, as well as Bossier City's newly-renovated East Bank District. Prize Fest has garnered attention for having a $50,000 prize for the winning film in competition.

Filmmakers register to make films that then shoot in Northern Louisiana. After films are turned in, a panel of industry experts pick the Top 20. Those films are featured during Prize Fest. Audiences and judges determine the winning film, which is awarded $50,000.

Award winning filmmakers Kyle Kleinecke and Lorraine Portman collaborated to create SPARKY & BUTCH. Imagine Starsky and Hutch retire to Shreveport, but can't stop fighting crime or chasing ladies. This is the inspiration for SPARKY & BUTCH.

Director Kyle Kleinecke has had two previous top 20 films in Prize Fest.

Kyle's directorial debut, THE PICKLEpremiered at the 2015 Louisiana Film Prize and was selected for the Founder's Circle Award. Since then THE PICKLE has been programmed in many other film festivals, winning several awards, including Best Comedy Short Film at the 2016 ME Film Festival in Georgia.

His sophomore short, THE ROOT CELLARpremiered at the 2016 Louisiana Film Prize and is in the middle of a strong festival run. THE ROOT CELLAR has been recognized with a number of awards including Best Thriller at Red Dirt FilmFestival in Oklahoma, Best American Thriller at the Austin Revolution Film Festival in Texas, and Best Short Film at Bare Bones International Independent Film & Music Festival in Oklahoma.

SPARKY & BUTCH screenwriter Lorraine Portman is an award winning Playwright, Screenwriter, and Filmmaker. She taught Playwriting and Screenwriting at Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida for ten years. She holds a B.A. in Theater from Smith College and M.F.A. in Film from Florida State University. Lorraine also attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She has written and directed seven short films and a feature. Lorraine Portman has been recognized with The Paul Schrader Best Screenplay Award during The Cayman International Film Festival for her screenplay THE KING'S INN.

The SPARKY & BUTCH cast is chock full of talented actors from Louisiana, Tennessee, New York, and Oregon.

Ted Ferguson who portrays "Sparky," grew up in the Mooretown neighborhood of Shreveport. Ted spent 40 years in broadcasting before retiring in 1999 and launching a second career as an actor.

Ted has appeared in NCIS NEW ORLEANS, MAD MEN, and PREACHER. Ted has brought to life over a 100 characters in film and television roles.

Richard Folmer, "Butch," served as the Artistic Director for East Bank Theatre in Bossier City, LA for 25 years. He has appeared in STRAW DOGS and CLEANER.

Dodie Brown, "Becky," has appeared in AMERICAN HORROR STORY, CLAWS, and QUEEN SUGAR.

Marlyn Mason, "Lacey," is loved the world over by Elvis fans. She was Elvis' leading lady in THE TROUBLE WITH GIRLS. Marlyn has also appeared in most of our classic television shows: THE ODD COUPLE, MARCUS WELBY, M.D., BARNABY JONES, BONANZA, and many more.

Lukas Hassel is a multiple award-winning actor, writer, and director. He's a graduate of the Samuel Beckett Theatre School of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Born and raised in Denmark, he's now a dual citizen of Denmark and the United States.As an actor, he has appeared in several TV shows, such as BLUE BLOODS (CBS), LIMITLESS (CBS), THE BLACKLIST (NBC), ELEMENTARY (NBC), as well as feature films, such as THE BLACK ROOM and IN MONTAUK.

Karen Carlson, "Cora," is a Shreveport native who appeared in the originalSTARSKY & HUTCH TV series.Karen Carlson made her debut in Hollywood on The Bob Hope Comedy Special for NBC. She went on to do variety shows like The Red Skeleton Show, Phyllis Diller Specials, The Hollywood Palace, and Laugh-In. Carlson has a long line of work both as a leading lady and supporting actress from films like THE CANDIDATE, IN LOVE WITH AN OLDER WOMAN, and THE OCTAGON, to television series like DALLAS,AMERICAN DREAM, TWO MARRIAGES, STARSKY & HUTCH, and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.

Appointed by then SAG-AFTRA President, Ken Howard, to the SAG-AFTRA National Committee for Seniors, Carlson worked December 2012-2013, to bring more recognition to regional senior members and their needs. Since 1971, Carlson has been a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, an honor she is quite proud to hold.

Eric Gibson, "Bob," works as a full time actor in the booming Shreveport short film industry. Eric directed the 2014 Louisiana Film Prize TOP 20 short film, SCOTCH ON THE ROCKS which was edited by Kyle Kleinecke. Eric also played "Snooks" in Kyle's first short film THEPICKLE which was in the TOP 20 in 2015. Since then, Eric has performed in four other TOP 20 Louisiana Film Prize short films, AMERICAN PRIDE, SHAKESPEARE ON THE RANGE, WILLOW, and AMERICAN CARNAGE. Eric recently acted in and produced the feature film DEVIL'S ACID which was shot in the Shreveport area.

Chris Alan Evans was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. After graduating in Broadcasting from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana; Chris began an award winning career in radio as an on-air personality and program director. In 2016, Chris left the radio industry to pursue a career in film. He landed a job on the set of WGN's "Salem", which was produced in Northwest Louisiana. In 2016, Chris co-wrote, produced and starred in the Horror Short HANGMAN which led to more acting roles. In 2017, Chris' role as Melvin Grimley Jr. in the Action/Comedy short CANDYLAND garnered critical and public acclaim. Winning Best Actor awards at the El Dorado Film Festival and Excuse My French Film Festival.

Eleanor Gautney has appeared in numerous commercials for companies that include Jeff's Pest Control, Ochsner Hospital, and the Christus Schumpert Hospital. She has also appeared as an extra in several feature films and TV productions. She performed speaking roles in MY REDNECK FAMILY produced in Bossier City, and SOMETHING BLUE produced in Baton Rouge, early last year.

SPARKY & BUTCH will play a number of times during the Prize Fest. Lorraine Portman, Kyle Kleinecke, producer Holly Rice, and many of the cast and crew will be in attendance during the festival.

The 20 short films are broken up into two screening blocks called "slates". The slates are named "Orange" and "Teal". Each slate will have a welcome video, show 5 films, a short break for intermission, and then show the remaining 5 films for that slate. Films are screened in random order each screening. To see all 20 films, you will need to attend one screening of both Orange Slate and Teal Slate. Both slates typically run about two and a half hours each. Slates will be screened dozens of times between Thursday evening and Saturday evening.

Seating is first come, first served (unless you have a VIP Pass). Get in line early at your venue of choice. Friday evening and Saturday afternoon are very popular times for venues like Robinson Film Center and Central Artstation. If a venue sells out, each of the most popular venues has a sister venue within one block of each other.

In order to vote, you MUST SEE ALL 20 SHORT FILMS! Once you have seen all of the films and had your pass punched, head to the voting booth. Celebrity Judges, a group of film and entertainment industry professionals not from Shreveport, will also see the films at the same time as the audience and vote for their favorites in a similar fashion. The Judges' votes account for only 50% of the total. The audience is the other 50%. This means YOU, the audience member, have a huge say in who wins one of the largest cash prizes for a film in the world.

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