Marideth Sisco of "Winter's Bone" to Appear at the St. Louis International Film Festival

When Marideth Sisco went looking for her Hollywood dreams during the 1960's, the city wasn't quite ready for her. Decades later, Hollywood came looking for Sisco in the Ozark Hills.

Sisco, a journalist and musician, has a featured scene in "Winter's Bone," the film adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's novel of the same name.

When reached by phone this week, Sisco said the producers thought they might film "Winter's Bone" in the West Plains, MO. area where she lives. Author Daniel Woodrell also is from West Plains.

"They (the producers) came here to visit the author and to look at possible locations. Somebody in the group said they wished they could hear some Ozark Music," Sisco said.

Sisco said that she and her group practice just about every night, so the producers came over to see them play, stayed for a couple of hours and left. About two years later, Sisco received a phone call from Ann Rosellini, one of the producers who also co-wrote the screenplay with director Debra Granik.

Rosellini asked Sisco to perform a song for the movie, one that the producers just couldn't get out of their heads. Thinking Rosellini meant recording it for the soundtrack, Sisco agreed.

"She said 'That's good because we have a scene written in the movie for you.' Needless to say, I was very surprised. I ended up doing several pieces of Ozark music for the movie," Sisco said.

Ironically enough, Marideth Sisco went to California years ago to break into the music business, but she said she didn't have any luck. "I've often said-and I think it was the honest truth-that I wasn't pretty enough to be out front and I had too much of an ego to be in back," Sisco said with a laugh.

In the early 60's, Sisco also majored in music in college with the goal of doing orchestration and arranging. "I had gotten a scholarship in music out of high school. When I applied for that degree program, they laughed at me. They said 'You're a woman, you'll never make a living at that.' "

"They just changed my paperwork and said I was going to be in music education. I was going to be a music teacher and I said 'Actually no, I'm not'," she said.

Sisco said she stayed in California for a long time, but she was never able to get a recording contract.

Thanks to the buzz surrounding "Winter's Bone," Sisco is getting her long overdue Hollywood break as the featured singer and music consultant on "Winter's Bone." She has gone to Sundance and appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to promote the film.

Sisco said that some people refer to the soundtrack as Ozark music, but it's not really. "It's Ozark/Appalachian/Irish. It's in the general field of old time music," she said.

Sisco's scene in the film is quite memorable, but she says that part of that is just the magic of the music. "That whole section of our music tradition is so deep in our culture, not just Ozark culture, but all of us of European, Scotch-Irish descent because it goes back so many years," she said.

Marideth Sisco will appear at Washington University on Sunday, November 14, to talk about "Winter's Bone" at the St. Louis International Film Festival. Please click here for a complete list of festival events and times.