FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (11/05)
Contact: Lynn Stewart or Kelsey Johnson, Centenary News Service, 318-841-7265

Centenary Alumnus to Test Screen Last Film Shot in St. Bernard Parish before Gulf Coast Hurricanes

	Co-directors Britt Pitre and Merrill Capps shoot their film "Feral" in South Louisiana just before Hurricane Katrina (File Photo).

SHREVEPORT, LA — New Orleans resident, filmmaker and Centenary graduate Britt Pitre, Class of 2002, and co-director Merrill Capps will test screen their independent film, Feral, on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in Jackson Hall, Room 304 on the Centenary College campus.

Pitre and Capps, co-owners of Doorway Entertainment, fled to the Atlanta area with clips of their year-long feature film project, Feral, just after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast region. Feral is now the last film shot entirely in St. Bernard Parish, a suburb of New Orleans.

“We were about halfway through post production when we left town. We packed our editing system and the movie’s master originals and came to Atlanta,” Capps said.

Judi Consiglio, a Georgia resident, is the executive producer for Feral. She and her husband Michael agreed to let Pitre and Capps live with them along with other evacuees during the few weeks after the storm.

Pitre explained, “Although we miss our home in New Orleans, we are both eager to dive into new local film infrastructures here in Georgia and the east coast.”

The two plan to take advantage of their displacement by exploring other new locations like Orlando and the Washington, D.C. area. Feral is the first of many projects in the works; the duo will begin work on their next feature later this year. The anticipated premiere of Feral is scheduled for January 2006. Pitre and Capps may also enter the film into the Cannes Film Festival next year, having solicited the aid of some Centenary French students to produce French subtitles for the film.

A psychological thriller, Feral is about a young couple’s desperate fight for survival, after an accidental murder while searching for their six-year-old daughter. The film questions the fine line between the human and the inhuman, civilization and the wild.

Feral's test screening is free and open to the public. Anyone interested in learning more about low-budget feature filmmaking in Louisiana is particularly encouraged to attend. Filmmakers Pitre and Capps and Executive Producer Consiglio will be in attendance to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards.

This event is sponsored by the Centenary Film Society, the Centenary College English Department and the Robinson Film Center. For more information, contact Jefferson Hendricks, Centenary professor of English and film studies, at 318-820-1414 or jhendric@centenary.edu.

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