Chris Alan Evans: radio host turned filmmaker's unique journey
'I wasn't very focused as a high school graduate and a college student, and there weren't really any programs in Louisiana that were film-geared,' Evans said. 'I ended up going to Northwestern State University and majored in journalism, because that was the closest thing they had to anything film.'
After graduating from NSU, Chris became a radio host and programmer in Shreveport for nearly 16 years. At almost age 40, he decided it was time to take a leap of faith into the world of film, crediting his previous experience in radio as being a foundation to stand on.
'I think I have a unique approach to people who have been in the industry since they were film students,' Evans said. 'I've lived life as a regular person. I've had an entire adulthood outside of the film industry that a lot of people in it haven't lived.
'As a radio programmer, you're basically managing people and infrastructure. As a producer and director, you do some of those same things. They're very different jobs, but there were some skills that translated for sure.'
Chris' life completely changed in 2021 when his mother, who was living with Parkinson's, began deteriorating. He decided to uproot his life and become his mother's primary caretaker as she battled the disease. Chris' experience with his mother became the subject of his short film 'Toots.', which finished in the top five of 2024's Louisiana Film Prize competition.
'I really forced myself to be vulnerable in the writing process,' Evans said. 'It was going to be a drama, which was something I hadn't really written yet. Part of the goal was like 'How honest can I be? How real can I make this? All of those were things I did to push myself and grow as a writer-director.'
Evans highlighted what makes the film scene in the Shreveport-Bossier area so different from bigger markets, particularly in the realm of independent short film.
'Shreveport is low-key one of the most vibrant independent film cities in all of the Southeast,' Evans said. 'To me it's maybe the short film capital of the United States of America. If you go to Dallas, you're all of a sudden in a big market of people that are making commercial content. It's not the same as making an independent film about living with your mother, right? We're not Los Angeles, we're not New York, but we've got hundreds of short films being made in this area every year.'
The Louisiana Film Prize is an annual short film festival that awards films shot in Louisiana. The grand prize is doubled for films shot in Caddo and/or Bossier Parish. The winner receives $50,000, the largest cash prize for a short film in the world. Chris received a grant from the LFP for 'Toots' to make his next short film, which he hopes to shoot next month in the Shreveport area.
While Chris has been making a living for himself in film, this wasn't always the case. He started out working on movie sets for no pay for years before being able to tell his own stories. When asked about his venture into film at such a late stage in his career, Chris had a message for aspiring filmmakers looking to break into the industry: just go for it.
'I know that's cliché, but I lived the cliché and now it's starting to pay off for me,' Evans said. 'If not now, when? I know people have to pay bills and have responsibilities they've got to worry about, but if you're not doing what you want to do then what are you doing? I bet on myself, and that put me in a position where it made me want to work harder because I had a lot at risk.'
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