St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase Begins Friday

You’ve probably been reading all about the Cannes Film Festival this week. St. Louis has its own big event starting this Friday. The Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, an annual presentation of the nonprofit Cinema St. Louis, 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.

Because of the continuing impact of the Covid-19 health crisis, the Showcase will again be presented virtually in 2021. CSL once more will partner with Eventive to present the virtual festival. The Showcase’s 15 film programs range from full-length fiction features and documentaries to multi-film compilations of fiction and documentary shorts.

In addition to the film programs, which will be available for streaming anytime during the July 16-25 run of the Showcase, the event features four free master classes focused on various aspects of filmmaking. These will be offered as livestreams at specific times/dates during the Showcase, but recordings of the presentations will also be archived and available on Cinema St. Louis’ YouTube channel.

The master classes are sponsored by the Chellappa-Vedavalli Foundation, which also is underwriting a $500 juried prize for the Best Film at the Showcase. The Showcase will conclude on July 25 with a free in-person Closing-Night Awards Presentation — presented by the law firm Capes Sokol — at the Centene Center for the Arts. The Showcase films chosen for inclusion in the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival will be announced, and the juries will present an array of awards. In addition, guests will enjoy special performances by Circus Harmony and rappers Yc Bey and Lacey Turner, and complimentary beer provided by 4 Hands Brewing Co. The in-person presentation of Showcase awards is now sold out, but if you would like to be placed on a waitlist for the event, please provide your name and email via this Google Form. For those unable to attend the party, a free livestream of the awards presentation will be available at 8:30 pm on Eventive. Click here to register for the livestream.

Featured films include:

Once a Hero (Narrative): Showcase alum Tim Reischauer directed this poignant drama about a veteran haunted by his PTSD. Writer/producer/lead actor Brett Jones is a former Navy SEAL, global-response agent with the CIA, and author of the book “Pride: The Story of the First Openly Gay Navy SEAL.”

House of Thunder (Documentary): Paul Schankman produced this fascinating documentary about a pivotal but little-known Revolutionary War battle.

The Final 19 (documentary): Director Tim Breitbach tells the astonishing true story of Sgt. Dan Hefel, one of the final 19 prisoners of war to come home from Vietnam.

The Balancing Act: Walking the Pandemic Tightrope (documentary): Circus Harmony’s Jessica Henthoff directed this charming peek behind the curtains at how current and former performers coped during the pandemic.

Indians, Outlaws, Marshals and the Hangin’ Judge (Documentary): Director Larry Foley uses a first-person re-creation of an account written by St. Louis Republic reporter Ada Patterson to tell the story of infamous “hangin’ judge” Isaac Parker. 

Interrobang (Narrative): This sexy, “adults only” comedy anthology was directed by former St. Louisan Paige Feldman (Ladue HS grad), who was an intern for the St. Louis Film Office when it produced the very first St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase in 2000.