Lights! Camera! Light rail!
That’s festival programmer Brit Withey’s advice to south metro
movie buffs who are inclined to attend the 32nd Starz Denver Film
Festival, Nov. 12-22.
The parking lot at the Tivoli on the Auraria campus — home to
the Starz Film Center — may be spacious enough during much of the
Denver Film Society’s year-round programming. But there goes the
neighborhood when a basketball or hockey game hits the Pepsi Center
across the street.
When the alternate worlds of movie buffs and sports fans occupy
the same space — specifically, the same parking spaces — it may not
be a problem worthy of quantum physics, but it is at least akin to
an uncomfortable seat at a bad movie.
Fade-in: A starring role for public transportation.
“It’s easy. You can get off at the Auraria stop or the Pepsi
Center. If there’s anything going on at the Pepsi Center, light
rail is highly encouraged,” Withey said, with the voice of
experience.
Flashback: Traffic snarls, delayed screenings and irritated
customers at the box office.
As Denver’s public transportation system has expanded, so has
the metro area’s premiere film event, which also uses the light
rail-accessible Denver Center for the Performing Arts as a
venue.
The Denver Film Festival, sponsored by Douglas County-based
Starz, attracts movie fans from across the Front Range and beyond
every year when it unreels more than 200 movies in something close
to a week and half.
The 2009 event begins Nov. 12 when the highly anticipated
“Precious” makes its Colorado premiere as the festival’s opening
night film at the DCPA’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
Award-winning “Precious” is the disturbing story of a troubled
and obese 16-year-old girl growing up in Harlem. The cast, largely
playing against type, includes Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz and
comic Mo’Nique as the girl’s abusive mother.
Newcomer Gabourey Sibide plays Precious and the Oscar buzz has
already begun.
“It’s one of the most affecting films I’ve seen in a really long
time,” Withey said. “It’s a heavy film and there was some doubt
about putting something on opening night that isn’t a
happy-go-lucky film where you walk out and go to a big party.”
That’s exactly what will happen, though. When the last reel of
“Precious” unspools, the audience will, perhaps awkwardly, regroup
for a gala party a few blocks away — to discuss the film, escape
its morbidity or maybe something in between.
“Everybody here felt so strong that that this is just one of the
best films of the year by far,” Withey said of the decision to
schedule “Precious” for the semi-formal opening night.
The 11-day festival’s other gala bookend will be closing night’s
“Young Victoria” on Nov. 21 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. The
drama about the politics of power stars Emily Blunt playing
England’s Victoria just as the young queen is ascending to the
throne.
Among the special guests this year will be actor Ed Harris, who
will receive the Mayor’s Career Achievement Award and Hal Holbrook
who, according to Withey, turns in a tour-de-force performance in
the new film, “That Evening Sun.”
“It’s pretty much just him in every scene,” Withey said of
Holbrook. “He plays this old curmudgeon who leaves the rest home
he’s been put in by his son and goes back to the farm he’d lived on
his whole life only to find his son has rented it to some unseemly
characters.”
After the screening, Holbrook will receive the festival’s
Excellence in Acting award.
The city of Denver, itself, stars in several documentaries
focusing on last year’s Democratic National Convention. South metro
resident Glenn Spagnuolo, an organizer of the Recreate ’68 protests
who was profiled by Colorado Community Newspapers last year, is
among the locals who make cameos in the locally-produced movie.
Homegrown filmmakers also have a surprisingly strong showing in
a program of Colorado shorts, says Withey.
“The package of local shorts is one of the best groupings of
shorts I’ve seen in a really long time,” he said. “We always want
to support local work as much as possible, but for it to be such a
no-brainer where they’re as good as any short film in the festival
is fantastic.”
Other festival programs will include a focus on Mexican cinema,
a series of environmental documentaries and a panel discussion
featuring many of the festival’s women filmmakers.
A Saturday at the Movies program will include two
family-friendly features, for which the price of admission will be
a toy donation to the Salvation Army.
So how does one navigate 11 days of panels, parties and films
that number in the triple digits? Withey, a film festival veteran,
has a few suggestions.
When circling options in the festival program, the programmer
says it is a good idea is to begin with movies that have been
nominated for the various competitive awards.
“That’s the programming team saying these are the top six films
in these categories, don’t miss these films,” he said.
If you go
The 32nd Starz Denver Film Festival runs Nov. 12-22. Most films
screen at the Starz Film Center in the Tivoli on the Auraria
Campus. Gala events at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver
Center for the Performing Arts.
For tickets and a full schedule, visit denverfilm.org.
