Tag: Cinema St. Louis

23rd Annual Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase Runs July 21-30, 2023

The Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, an annual presentation of the nonprofit Cinema St. Louis (CSL), serves as the area’s primary venue for films made by local artists. The Showcase screens works that were shot in the St. Louis region or were written, directed, or produced by St. Louis-area residents or by filmmakers with strong local ties who are now working elsewhere.

The 91 films in this year’s Showcase is spread across 17 film programs ranging from narrative and documentary features to multi-film compilations of fiction, experimental, and documentary shorts. Feature length film programs include Q&As with filmmakers. In addition to the film programs, this year’s event includes three free master classes focused on key aspects of filmmaking.

All film programs screen exclusively at the Hi-Pointe Theatre. Three master classes will also be offered, two at the theater and a legal-issues master class will be held at the offices of Capes Sokol in Clayton.

The July 30th closing-night awards presentation will take place in the Hi-Pointe Theatre from 7:30 – 10:30 PM, with awards announcements beginning at 8:30 PM. Announced during the event will be nearly two dozen Showcase jury awards — including the Essy Award, a $1,000 prize to the overall Best Showcase Film. Cinema St. Louis staff will also announce the films that will move on to the 32nd Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival in November.

The 91 films and three master classes in this year’s Showcase include the following:

  • Animated and Experimental Shorts: Over a dozen animated and experimental works are presented in a colorful shorts program.
  • Doc Shorts: Two illuminating and thoughtful documentary-short programs feature a wide range of stories and subjects.
  • Master Classes: A series of three free master classes — featuring filmmakers and industry professionals — focus on key aspects of filmmaking: winners in the Missouri Stories Lab, Film Criticism, and Legal Issues.
  • Narrative Shorts: Eight eclectic narrative-short programs include comedies, dramas, thrillers, supernatural and experimental films
  • “The Box” is a sci-fi project over 11 years in the making by Doveed Linder, whose feature  film “Defiance” screened in the very first Showcase in 2001
  • “Anthem: Road to Redemption” is a documentary about an 80’s St. Louis high school cover band who makes an album and holds a reunion concert 40 years later.
  • “Bring Dat Mono Back” is a documentary about The Monastery nightclub and the birth of dance craze the “Mono,” that has influenced local dance and music culture to this day.
  • “Somewhere in Old Missouri” is a supernatural, mid-western musical in a program along with three lively music videos.

23rd Annual Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase

Dates: Screenings held July 21-23 and 28-30, 2023

Tickets: Individual tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for Cinema St. Louis members and students with valid and current photo IDs

Locations: All film screenings and closing night awards party will take place at the Hi-Pointe Theatre, located at 1005 McCausland Ave., at the intersection of McCausland Ave. and Clayton Rd. Two of the filmmaking master classes will also be held at the theater; and the closing-night party will be held at the Hi-Pointe Theatre.

Passes: 5-film passes are available for $65, $50 for CSL members; VIP passes are available for $140, $105 for CSL members

Ticket and Pass Purchase: cinemastlouis.org/st-louis-filmmakers-showcase

The Whitaker Foundation again serves as the Showcase’s title sponsor. The foundation’s twofold mission is to encourage the preservation and use of parks and to enrich lives through the arts. The Chellappa-Vedavalli Foundation is underwriting both the Showcase’s master classes and the Essy Award, a $1,000 prize for the Best Showcase Film.

The event’s other sponsors include Arts & Education Council, Capes Sokol, Cheshire, Explore St. Louis, Grizzell & Co., Lindell Bank, Missouri Arts Council, Missouri Division of Tourism, Missouri Film Office, Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, and St. Louis Public Radio.

Instagram: @stlfilmshowcase Twitter: @stlfilmshowcase Facebook: @STLFilmmakersShowcase

For more information, the public should visit cinemastlouis.org.

Cinema St. Louis Announces Plans To Purchase Hi-Pointe Theatre

Cinema St. Louis has announced plans to acquire the Hi-Pointe Theatre as their new base of operations and programming beginning in January 2023. Opening in 1922, the Hi-Pointe Theatre has been a cherished landmark for multiple generations of film lovers, and CSL plans to continue that tradition for years to come.

The Hi-Pointe Theatre is the oldest locally owned and continuously-operating arthouse theater in St. Louis. In 1977 the James family acquired the theater, and under their stewardship, the theater has become an iconic St. Louis landmark. The James family shared: “After 45 years of owning the beloved Hi-Pointe Theatre, we have decided that it is time to end our run. We have been blessed to share this theater with 3 generations of our family and have had the privilege of helping it reach the magical age of 100 years. We know that Cinema St Louis is the perfect sequel to our story. They share the same passion and vision, and we are confident that they will be able to carry on our family’s legacy for the next 100 years. We thank you for your continued patronage, dedication, and support through the years. We will miss you all.”

Cinema St. Louis’ vision is to create cinematic experiences that enrich, educate, entertain, and build community. The organization has presented programming for more than 30 years when they’ve been able to secure venues. This acquisition would allow the organization to offer diverse, year-round programming and affordable experiences in the most continual and sustainable manner possible.

CSL’s Executive Director, Bree Maniscalco, stated that “Cinema St. Louis is grateful for this opportunity to not only preserve the last remaining arthouse cinema in St. Louis but also to finally create a permanent home for the organization and make film accessible for the entire St. Louis community. CSL will host its annual film festivals, educational programming, and filmmaker seminars at the Hi-Pointe Theatre. The organization will also offer repertory film series throughout the year as well as screenings of first-run films.”

This acquisition will:

  • Use film festivals and special events to establish the Hi-Pointe as a unique regional destination to draw visitors to St. Louis.
  • Increase access to film and filmmaking for underrepresented audiences.
  • Showcase local talent and bring global, well-recognized films to St. Louis.
  • Expand free educational and enrichment opportunities to K-12 students through filmmaking camps and screenings throughout the year.

For additional information on CSL visit: https://www.cinemastlouis.org.

Cinema St. Louis and St. Louis Public Radio Present Free BEST OF SHORTS Program Saturday February 20th

Cinema St. Louis and St. Louis Public Radio are proud to co-present a free virtual screening of a selection of the award-winning short films from the 2020 Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) and 2020 Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. In addition to the films, the event will feature an interview with Jon Alston, director of “Augustus,” which won the Essy Award (which honors films with St. Louis connections) for Best Narrative Short at both the Showcase and SLIFF.

The program will be streamed at 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 20, on St. Louis Public Radio’s Twitch channel.

Twitch is a livestream video platform owned by Amazon. It’s like YouTube, but all the videos are live, so the experience is different at any given time.

More information can be found on St. Louis Public Radio’s Events page: stlpublicradio.org/events. Participants can register for the event here.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has long sanctioned SLIFF’s shorts competition as a pre-screening event for the Academy Awards. The winners in four categories of SLIFF’s juried shorts programming (Best of Fest, Best Animation, Best Live Action, and Best Documentary) are eligible to submit their films directly to the Academy for Oscar consideration.

St. Louis Public Radio is an award-winning news organization and NPR member station, providing in-depth news, insightful discussion, and entertaining programs to more than a half-million people per month on-air and online. With a large, St. Louis-based newsroom and reporters stationed in Jefferson City and Rolla, Mo., and Belleville, Ill., the station’s journalists find and tell important stories about communities across the region and help people to become deeply informed about the issues that affect their lives. Broadcasting on 90.7 KWMU FM in St. Louis, 90.3 WQUB in Quincy, Ill., 88.5 KMST in Rolla, and sharing news and music online at stlpublicradio.org, St. Louis Public Radio is a member-supported service of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The following short films will be screened during this event:

Always Coming Back (Noah Readhead & Nate Townsend, U.S.,  2020, 9 min., English): SLIFF Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary Short. Webster Groves rallies around a man with a mental disability to support his greatest passion.

Augustus (Jon Alston, U.S., 2020, 16 min., English): SLIFF and Showcase Essy Award for Best Narrative Short. Augustus, a literate carpenter and family man who is living free as a fugitive slave, is faced with a decision to speak or die when denied the wages he’s earned.

Black Goat (Yi Tang, Nepal/U.S., 2019, 12 min., Nepali): SLIFF Best Live Action Short. A new girl at a nunnery has her first period after hearing a late-night ghost story and believes that she has been cursed, requiring her to sacrifice a black goat to avoid further misfortune.

Colette (Anthony Giacchino, France/Germany/U.S., 2019, 24 min., French & German): SLIFF Best Documentary Short. Colette Catherine, now 90, revisits the terrors of her childhood, when she fought the Nazis as a member of the French Resistance.

I Want to Make a Film about Women (Karen Pearlman, Australia, 2019, 12 min., English & Russian): SLIFF Essy Award for Best Documentary Short. A speculative love letter to Russian constructivist women in the 1920s Soviet Union.

Josiah (Kyle Laursen, U.S., 2019, 20 min., English): SLIFF Best of Fest Short. A Black actor auditions for a part in a period television series.

R.A.S. (Lucas Durkheim, France, 2019, 5 min., French): SLIFF Best Short Short. For months now, a group of five bored young soldiers have been stuck on a mission in the middle of the Afghan mountains, but the routine is finally broken during a support mission.

To the Dusty Sea (Héloïse Ferlay, France, 2020, 12 min., French): SLIFF Best Animated Short. Left alone in the summer, Malo and Zoe try their best to catch their mother’s elusive eye.