Franki Cambeletta, and his team at Shift Films, including partner and founder Jeremy King, and creative partner/writer Lillian McLeod Schenck, love bringing untold stories of St. Louis to life. With films, such as the 40-time award winning CRINGE, award-winning podcasts, and The Lost Boys of Hannibal, these creatives and investigative filmmakers are making documentaries like they should be made; sharing the facts, without a political agenda attached.
This team also managed to turn a few events from St. Louis' past into visual and audio masterpieces, as they unlock the reality behind some of the area's most notorious unsolved mysteries.
When Franki and co-host Chris Koetters began their podcast about the Lost Boys of Hannibal in 2019, based on the research they had done on the disappearance of Billy (age 11) and Joey Hoag (age 13) and their friend Craig Dowell (age 14) back in 1967, little did they know their podcast would become really popular, and that it would become a two-time Gold Communicator award winner of excellence in documentary podcast, and a St. Louis Magazine A-List for best new podcast. Additionally, it ended up bringing this 54-year-old cold case back to life, as intensive investigation into the case has started in conjunction with local authorities and Missouri Department of Transportation officials, hoping to get to the truth of exactly what happened to these three young boys…many moons ago.
Another local story that Franki and his team worked tirelessly on, due to be released later this year as a six-part series, is the film they created on the untimely death of Elsa Lemp Wright, heiress to St. Louis’ own Lemp Brewery.
One-hundred years after Elsa's death, Franki and his investigative documentarians uncover her early life, and what really happened to her on the day of her death. In Lemp's Last Wright, they share the facts on her life, and demise, thus allowing viewers to come to their own conclusion as to whether Elsa’s death was from suicide, as it was reported, or if it was, in fact, cold-blooded murder.
While Franki continues to immerse himself in the paranormal he has loved since childhood, he also continues to engage with his love of transportation, with his Haunted Garage podcast series.
Now, he has decided to embark on his scariest endeavor-to-date, as he and Jeremy King produce the upcoming Haunted Garage Horror Film Festival in St. Louis during Oct. 22-23 at the Gaslight Theatre/Actors Studio, 358 Boyle Ave. The Haunted Garage Film Festival features both local and national horror film entries. “St. Louis is the perfect place to bring the horror genre of film to life, as there are so many horror filmmakers and lovers, located right here within our midst,” he says.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear horror film expert Antonio Pantoja, director and writer of 2018’s award-winning Horror film, One Must Fall, who will be presenting at the festival.
For more information about the Haunted Garage Horror Film Festival, or to get $25 per person tickets (must be 18 years or older due to the content of the films being screened), visit ShiftFilms.net/podcast.