Bree Maniscalco, Executive Director of Cinema St. Louis, stopped by to speak with Nancy about the organization's happenings including the St. Louis International Film Festival, which runs Nov 9-19th this year.
The festival kicks off on Thursday, November 9th, celebrating 50 Years of Hip-Hop with a tribute to the Hi-Pointe Cafe's pivotal role in shaping hip-hop's history, showcasing the city's significant influence in its evolution. Attendees will be treated to a cocktail reception, engaging conversations, and a special screening of the 1990 film, "House Party," directed by East St. Louis’ own, Reginald Hudlin.
CSL’s Executive Director, Bree Maniscalco, shared, "As we celebrate our first festival at the Hi-Pointe Theatre, we wanted to pay tribute to the Hi-Pointe neighborhood and honor those who made Hip-Hop what it is today. Mondays at the Hi-Pointe Cafe holds a special place in many people’s hearts, and we’re looking to bring it back to kick things off in style for this year’s Fest.”
This year's festival promises a variety of exclusive events, screenings, enlightening post-film Q&A sessions, and illuminating masterclasses dedicated to addressing industry-relevant topics. SLIFF received an impressive 2,419 submissions, marking the festival's 32nd anniversary with record-breaking enthusiasm. SLIFF's dedicated team of programmers, hailing from diverse backgrounds, meticulously curated a selection of 278 films that underscore the transformative power of cinema.
An American poet and artist, Sally Van Doren is the author of four poetry collections, Sibilance, (LSU Press 2023) Promise, (2017) Possessive, (2012) and Sex at Noon Taxes (2008) which received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. Her poems have been featured by NPR, PBS, The Poetry Foundation, American Life in Poetry, and Poetry Daily, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has appeared widely in national and international publications such as American Letters and Commentary, American Poet, Barrow Street, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, december, Lumina, The Moth, The New Republic, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, Southern Review, Southwest Review, Verse Daily and Western Humanities Review. Her ongoing poetic memoir, The Sense Series, served as the text for a multi-media installation at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. ------
As a practicing visual artist, Van Doren formalized her training at Hunter College and The School of Visual Arts in New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Furnace Art on Paper Archive and other venues and participates in group shows regularly. Her work is held in distinguished private and corporate collections, including a print commission for each guest room for the Hotel Downstreet in North Adams, MA. Her art appears on the cover of The Difference is Spreading: Fifty Contemporary Poets on Fifty Poems (UPenn Press 2022) and in literary magazines such as The Nashville Review and 2River. ------
A graduate of Princeton University (BA) and University of Missouri-St. Louis (MFA), Van Doren has taught poetry workshops for a variety of educational institutions, among them the 92nd Street Y, the St. Louis Public Schools, Washington University in St. Louis, the St. Louis County Juvenile Detention Center and Scoville Memorial Library. She curated the Sunday Poetry Workshops for the St. Louis Poetry Center and serves on the board of the Five Points Center for the Visual Arts in Torrington, CT. A native St. Louisan, she works from her studio in West Cornwall, CT. -------
Established in 1846 by civic leaders and philanthropists, the Mercantile exists today as a vibrant community and cultural asset. It is the oldest library west of the Mississippi and the grandparent of St. Louis cultural institutions. ------
The task of the Mercantile Library as a research library is to make its collections, which have come to concentrate on Western Expansion and the history, development, and growth of the St. Louis region and of the American rail and river transportation experiences, available to the widest number of local and national users. -----