def METHOD_NAME(date_string, tz=None):
    dt = dateparse.parse_datetime(date_string)
    if dt is None:
        raise ValueError("date isn't well formatted")
    if settings.USE_TZ:
        dt = timezone.localtime(dt, datetime.timezone.utc if tz is None else tz)
    return dt.strftime("%d %b %Y %H:%M")