Cinema St. Louis

Bob Cassilly dedicated his life to turning a demolished city into art. His legacy remains strong in St. Louis.

“Love” is the theme for the 17th annual QFest: self-love and acceptance, romance, familial bonds, fictive kinship and all.

Film lovers in the St. Louis region will get a chance to see award-winning movies when the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival returns this week. The festival will again feature films that highlight the often-overlooked contributions of notable Black Americans.

The 23rd annual Whittaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase includes stories set in St. Louis and explorations of local history. They include science fiction tale “The Box” and “Somewhere in Old Missouri,” a Western with supernatural elements and lots of music.

Hettie Barnhill's, “a love letter to Brian, Lesley, and Michelle,” will be shown at the Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. The experimental feature is a commentary on the injustices faced by Black people in this country.

Under Cinema St. Louis Executive Director Cliff Froehlich's leadership, the organization weathered the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic. He retires in June.

“Lake Loch Pond Monster,” the creation of independent filmmaker Carolina Diz and actress and creator Brittany Zeinstra, is the winner of a recent filmmaking competition hosted by Cinema St. Louis.

St. Louis filmmaker Matthew Rice's "The Ballad of John Henry" is streaming as part of this year's extended St. Louis International Film Festival. The documentary delves into the folk hero John Henry's hardships of living under Virginia’s “Black codes” and the convict-lease program, an unjust legal system developed after the Civil War as a replacement for slavery.

Among the offerings of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival is “Test Pattern.” It is the first feature film by St. Louis native Shatara Michelle Ford and follows a young Black woman as she navigates the medical and justice system after an assault.

For a long time, 27-year-old St. Louis native Joseph Puleo mostly associated the city’s iconic Hill neighborhood with a wealth of delicious Italian food…