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Calcasieu Parish Short Film Festival celebrates aspiring filmmakers - American Press.Calcasieu Parish Short Film Festival celebrates aspiring filmmakers Published 9:29 am Thursday, May 28, 2026 The ninth annual Calcasieu Parish Short Film Festival will take place Saturday at the Brimstone Museum Annex in Sulphur.The independent film festival was founded in 2018 by Patrick Bennett after he decided to branch off his original Lake Charles Film Festival, which takes place in October each year, and start a separate one specifically for films that are 30 minutes or less.The festival is a contest that shows blocks of short films followed by brief discussion, oftentimes with the filmmakers.Film categories include narrative films, documentaries, student films, animated films and experimental and come in genres such as drama, comedy, sci-fi and horror.Winners are announced at 4 p.m.This year’s festival includes entries from eight states, including Louisiana, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, California, Missouri, Iowa, Massachusetts and Georgia.Six of the original films are creations by Louisiana directors.“The Lake Charles Film Festival has a lot of feature-length films and I wanted to do something just for people who wanted to make shorts because a lot of the filmmakers I was meeting were aspiring filmmakers making their first films and weren’t trying to create a feature yet,” Bennett said.“Just because something is a short film doesn’t mean it’s cheap or low budget,” he said.“A lot of these shorts look Hollywood quality; there’s a lot of work and money put into them.” Bennett said he’s been a huge movie buff ever since he was a little kid, and when he moved to Dallas to pursue his career, he started attending film festivals in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.“I loved going to the festivals because you’d get to meet the filmmakers and talk to them and learn all about filmmaking, so when I moved back to Lake Charles, and there were no film festivals around, I really missed that so I said maybe I should try to start my own,” Bennett said.At each festival, Bennett said he likes to showcase a film in honor of its 100th anniversary.This year’s screening will be of the 1927 comedy short film “The Battling Kangaroo.” It was directed by Jules White, a Hollywood director who made more than 500 short films and is widely known for directing most of the Three Stooges shorts.The screening will begin at 3:30 p.m.“One of these films might connect with an aspiring filmmaker,” Bennett said.One entire block is based on the legend of Bigfoot.Bennett said there was a recent Bigfoot sighting in the Lake Area and he thought it would be fun to add the category the agenda.One of the films was written and filmed by Bennett, who has filmed 10 shorts.His latest, titled “Tai-Tai Maudit,” which stands for “The Cursed Monster” in French, will be featured during the festival.Bennett directed the film, shot entirely in Louisiana, including Lake Charles, with a Louisiana cast and crew.He said the film is set in 1970s Louisiana.“It’s a Cajun Bigfoot story and it has ’70s and ’60 vehicles, wardrobe and music and I’m very pleased with how it turned out,” Bennett said.Bennett hosts a podcast, co-directed by Kendall Fontenot, titled “Filmsquatch.” The two have been co-hosting the podcast for four years and have watched and reviewed more than 50 Bigfoot movies.Bennett said after talking about other people’s movies he decided it was time to make his own Bigfoot movie.He said it’s been a two-year project.The costume was purchased and customized by Kat Godsey of the Brimstone Museum.The costume will be on display.“She took the costume that we bought and completely redid it by painting it and made the hair a different color and it came out looking really awesome and realistic,” he said.Doors will open at 10:30 a.m.with the first film beginning at 11 a.m.Admission is free.There will be free popcorn and soft drinks.Bennett said some films include adult language and situations and might not be suitable for children.The Brimstone Museum Annex is located at 923 S.For a complete schedule, visit festival’s Facebook page.