Denver, CO
Denver Film Festival 2024: New red-carpet venue, movies, and celebs for 47th year
The 47th Denver Film Festival is moving all but one its red-carpet screenings to a new venue this year, alongside Colorado premieres of buzzy indies such as “The Piano Lesson” and “The Brutalist,” and in-person guests including Patricia Clarkson, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
The festival, Nov. 1-10 at multiple venues, will offer 185 narrative features, shorts, and documentaries, as well as parties, panels, workshops and a gala, according to nonprofit producer Denver Film.
Single tickets to screenings, plus special and gala presentations and Red Carpets, are on sale to Denver Film members on Thursday, Oct. 3, and the public on Friday, Oct. 4, at denverfilm.org/denverfilmfestival.
For the first time this year, the festival‘s opening and closing-night red carpet screenings will be at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver’s Holiday Theater, a historic building the museum restored in the Highland neighborhood that has lately hosted screenings, panels and musical performances. The Red Carpets are moving there from downtown’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House, a favored and prestigious venue that Denver Film has in recent years struggled to fill — even before the pandemic.
However, the Centerpiece presentation of “The Order” still will be at the Ellie. The film is an adaptation of a nonfiction book co-written by former Rocky Mountain News reporter and current Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn, which looks at a violent, far-right group of neo-Nazis that operated in Washington in the 1980s. It stars Jude Law and Nicholas Holt and plays the Ellie on Nov. 8.
Bookending it are opening and closing-night red carpets at MCA’s Holiday Theater, with the first being the Nov. 1 screening of “The Piano Lesson.” The August Wilson adaptation stars Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington; writer Virgil Williams will appear in person to receive Denver Film’s Excellence in Writing award.
The festival will close with “September 5,” which stars Peter Sarsgaard and John Magaro in its dramatization of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis. It plays the MCA Holiday Theater on Nov. 9.
Several Denver premieres are also slated, including “The Brutalist,” “Better Man,” “The Room Next Door,” “Emilia Perez,” “Blitz,” “Oh, Canada,” “The Last Showgirl” and “Nightbitch” — that last one starring Colorado native Amy Adams.
Fest producers also said they’ll host celebs this year such as Patricia Clarkson (“Sharp Objects,” “Six Feet Under”), who will receive the Cassavetes Award at a screening of “Lilly” at MCA Denver Holiday Theater. Marianne Jean-Baptiste will receive Denver Film’s Excellence in Acting Award following a screening of “Hard Truths,” Denver Film said. Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family”), will be on-hand for his CinemaQ LaBahn Ikon Film Award, following a screening of “All That We Love” and short film “It’s Okay.”
Directors RaMell Ross (“The Nickel Boys”), Jason Reitman (“Saturday Night”), Nnamdi Asomugha (“The Knife”), Cristiana Dell’Anna (“Cabrini”) and others will appear in person alongside their screenings.
Denver Film’s Sie FilmCenter will serve as the festival anchor, with additional screenings at the Ellie, Denver Botanic Gardens, AMC 9 + CO 10, and the MCA Holiday Theater.
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Denver, CO
Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others
Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.
Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.
Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.
Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.
At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.
No suspects had been identified publicly or arrested as of Tuesday afternoon.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Denver, CO
Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines
The new year in Colorado brought new restrictions for people who vape in Denver. As of January 1, a voter-approved ban on flavored nicotine products is now in effect in Denver, prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products within city limits.
Just outside the Denver border, vape shops say they’re already feeling the ripple effects.
At Tokerz Head Shop in Aurora, located about a block and a half from the Denver city line, owner Gordon McMillon says customers are beginning to trickle in from Denver.
“I was in shock it passed, to be honest,” McMillon said. “Just because of how many people vape in Denver. But we’re hoping to take care of everybody that doesn’t get their needs met over there anymore.”
One of those customers is Justin Morrison, who lives in the Denver area and vapes daily. He stopped by the Aurora shop a day after the ban went into place.
Morrison says the ban won’t stop him from vaping. It will just change where he buys his products.
“I’m going to have to come all the way to Aurora to get them,” he said. “It’s pretty inconvenient. I smoke flavored vapes every day.”
The goal of the ban, according to public health advocates, is to reduce youth vaping.
Morrison said flavored vapes helped him quit smoking cigarettes, an argument frequently raised by adult users and vape retailers who oppose flavor bans.
“It helped tremendously,” he said. “I stopped liking the flavor of cigarettes. The taste was nasty, the smell was nasty. I switched all the way over to vapes, and it helped me stop smoking cigarettes completely.”
McMillon worries bans like Denver’s could push some former smokers back to cigarettes.
“If they can’t get their vapes, some will go back to cigarettes, for sure,” he said. “I’ve asked people myself, and it’s about 50-50.”
While McMillon acknowledges it will bring more business to shops outside Denver, he says the ban wasn’t something he wanted.
“Even if it helps me over here in Aurora, I’m against it,” he said. “I feel like adults should have the rights if they want to vape or not.”
More than 500 retailers in Denver removed their flavored products. For many, they accounted for the majority of their sales. Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment says it will begin issuing fines and suspensions to retailers found selling flavored tobacco products.
Both McMillan and Morrison say they’re concerned the ban could spread to other cities. For now, Aurora vape shops remain legal alternatives for Denver customers.
Despite the added drive, Morrison says quitting isn’t on the table.
“It’s an addiction. You’re going to find a way to get it. That’s why I don’t see the point of banning it here,” Morrison said.
Denver, CO
Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy
Denver will be the site of the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy.
Funding for the project was approved by Denver voters in the Vibrant Denver Bond measure.
The vision is for the embassy to welcome Native people back home to Colorado.
On the snowy day of CBS News Colorado’s visit, Rick Williams observed the buffalo herd at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
“These animals are sacred to us,” said Williams, who is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne. “This was our economy. They provided everything we needed to live a wonderful lifestyle.”
Williams is president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy.
“‘Homeland’ is a special term for everybody, right?” Williams asked. “But for people who were alienated, for American Indians who were alienated from Colorado, they don’t have a home, they don’t have a home community that you can go to, this is it. And I think that’s sad.”
The First Creek Open Space — near 56th and Peña, near the southeast corner of the Arsenal — is owned by the City and County of Denver and is being considered for development of the embassy.
“To have a space that’s an embassy that would be government-to-government relations on neutral space,” said Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, who represents northeast Denver District 11. “But then also supporting the community’s economic development and their cultural preservation.”
Gilmore said $20 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond will support the design and construction of the center to support Indigenous trade, arts, and education.
“That sense of connection and that sense of place and having a site is so important if you’re going to welcome people back home,” added Gilmore.
“What a great treasure for people in Colorado,” Williams said as he read the interpretive sign at the wildlife refuge.
He said the proposed location makes perfect sense: “Near the metropolitan area, but not necessarily in the metropolitan area, we would love to be near buffalo. We would love to be in an area where there’s opportunities for access to the airport.”
The Denver March Powwow could one day be held at the embassy.
Williams dreams of expanding the buffalo herd nearby and having the embassy teach future generations Indigenous skills and culture.
The concept for the embassy is one of the recommendations emerging from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission, a group of American Indian leaders in Colorado who began to organize four years ago to study the history of Native Americans in our state.
And the work is just beginning.
“We have to think about, ‘how do we maintain sustainability and perpetuity of a facility like this?’” Williams said. “So there’s lots of issues that are going to be worked on over the next year or so.”
Williams added, “One day our dreams are going to come true, and those tribes are going to come, and we’re going to have a big celebration out here. We’re going to have a drum, and we’re going to sing honor songs, and we’re going to have just the best time ever welcoming these people back to their homeland.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s staff sent the following statement:
“We are excited about the passing of the Vibrant Denver Bond and the opportunity it creates to invest in our city’s first American Indian Cultural Embassy. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with the Indigenous community to plan and develop the future embassy, and city staff have already been invited to listen and engage with some of our local American Indian groups, like the People of the Sacred Land. We are not yet at the stage of formal plans, but we are excited to see the momentum of this project continue.”
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