South Bend teachers and students premiere feature film tonight

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Local South Bend teachers, Tim Richardson, who teaches Broadcast Media and Film, and Michael Koutoubetes, who teaches IT, co-directed a parody film which is premiering tonight, June 21, at 7 p.m., at John Adams High School Auditorium.

Richardson and Koutoubetes are both part of CTE, or Career and Technical Education.

The two's new comedy/spoof feature film is called "Dr. Spiderwack's Mind-Boggling Compendium of Fantastic Urban Beasts."

The film combines elements of "The Spiderwick Chronicles," "Harry Potter," "Fantastic Beasts," and more.

You can purchase tickets here or at the door. General admission is $8 and senior and student admission is $6.

Above poster courtesy of Richardson Productions LLC

The film also stars Kiran Shah, a little person actor and stunt performer, who's been in Narnia, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. Shah has been in many other well-known franchises since the late 70s.

Richardson says most of the cast and crew are local actors, many of whom he's worked with for years.

He also adds multiple Riley High School students of his helped make the film possible, including 2024 graduate Matthew Pandori-Tessely, who has an acting role, but his biggest part was working on sound design and sound effects for the film for 10 months.

The cast and crew will be at the screening to sign posters and Blu-ray copies of the film.

Cast and crew will arrive between 6 and 6:30 p.m. to start signing posters and do interviews.

The film will start closer to 7:15 p.m.

Richardson, who's also the founder of the local River Bend Film Festival, will also screen the film at the Gen Con Film Festival on August 2, at 10 a.m.

Richardson's previous work includes "The Dork of the Rings," "Harvey Putter and the Ridiculous Premise," and "Vulassic Park."

John Adams High School is located at 808 S Twyckenham Dr. in South Bend.

You can view the trailer below.

Trailer provided courtesy of Richardson Productions LLC