SLIFF 2016 – WITHIN OUR GATES From 1920 Screens Nov 12th with Live Music by Stace England & the Salt Kings

The 1920 silent film WITHIN OUR GATES screens as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. The film will be accompanied by Stace England and the Screen Syndicate, who play an album of songs inspired by Oscar Micheaux, writer-director of WITHIN OUR GATES. The screening is sponsored by Renee Hirshfield. Ticket information can be found HERE

As part of the 25th-anniversary celebration, The St. Louis International Film Festival reprises a special event from our 2009 edition by screening “Within Our Gates,” writer-director Oscar Micheaux’s impassioned response to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation.” The film shines a revealing light on the racism of U.S. society, provocatively including scenes of lynching and attempted rape. Micheaux was a pioneering African-American filmmaker and novelist whose career stretched from the silent era through the 1940s. “Within Our Gates,” one of the oldest surviving “race” films, was thought lost until a print was discovered in Spain in 1990 and restored by the Library of Congress in 1992. This screening features a new restoration that offers an even more faithful approximation of the film as originally released. SLIFF has again invited Cairo, Ill.’s Stace England & the Salt Kings to play the original score the group created for the 2009 presentation. The band will also offer a few selections from its album “The Amazing Oscar Micheaux,” whose songs were inspired by the filmmaker’s life and work.

Screen Syndicate is a side project of Southern Illinois-based Americana band Stace England and the Salt Kings. The band has performed at numerous film festivals in the U.S. and Europe — appearing three times at SLIFF in the past — with shows about and Cairo, Ill. And the show about pioneering African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux once before in 2009.

Stace England hails from southern Illinois and found his creative footing in Chicago during the early ’90s with House Afire, one of the first country/roots bands in what was to become a very vibrant alt-country scene. England returned to southern Illinois and recorded a project of aggressive folk material under the name Tecumseh, releasing the well-received “Bearings” in 1995. His next musical adventure was with the alt/slasher/country-rock outfit Jubilee Songbirds, which released the eclectic “Birds of North America” (Western Front) in 1997. England released his first solo record, “Peach Blossom Special” (Relay) in 1999, and a power pop CD in 2003, “Lovey Dovey ALL the Time” (Gnashville Sounds).

England’s concept/historical album “Greetings From Cairo, Illinois” traced Cairo’s history from 1858 to the present through the Civil War, lynchings, the blues years, civil rights struggles and spectacular decline. England was joined on the CD by other top musicians. With 2007’s “Salt Sex Slaves” England, along with his band The Salt Kingstackled another bizarre slice of unknown US history weaving true stories of brutal salt production, slave breeding, kidnapped free blacks and murder in a supposed Free State, and the Land of Lincoln.

Stace England and the Screen Syndicate

With 2010’s “The Amazing Oscar Micheaux” England and the Salt Kings set their sights on the life story of Oscar Micheaux, born in Metropolis, Illinois.  Micheaux formed his own film company and wrote, filmed, produced and directed the sprawling epic, THE HOMESTEADER in 1919.  It was a sensation in Chicago and other cities. Then, in a direct challenge to D.W. Griffith’s racially charged Birth of a Nation Micheaux released his masterpiece, WITHIN OUR GATES in 1920, a film thought lost for almost 60 years until a copy was finally discovered.