After 11 years at this gig, this is the first time I’m devoting a year-ender to Colorado film happenings. Why? Because doing so doesn’t merely reflect the hopeful hankerings of a homer. No, 2014 had a turning-point energy. It marks the year filmmaking in the state and home-grown filmmakers gained real traction. Here are five signs in support of that claim.
1. In April, the state legislature approved a budget that acknowledged the success (but also needs) of the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media’s tax-rebate program. The 2013-14 budget allocated $800,000. This fiscal year’s budget bumped that amount to $5 million for incentives, making us more competitive with our production-courting neighbors: New Mexico and Utah.
2. Later that month, The Tribeca Four invaded New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. Colorado-based producers Paula DuPré Pesmen and Jim Butterworth and directors Daniel Junge and Louie Psihoyos took projects to Robert De Niro’s increasingly high-profile fest. Junge and Pesmen got distribution deals with the Weinstein Co.’s Radius division: Junge for his and co-director Keif Davidson’s “Beyond the Brick: a Lego Brickumentary” (set for an April release) and Pesmen for Alan Hicks’ “Keep on Keepin’ On.”
3. Arguably the best director of his generation, Quentin Tarantino decides to shoot his latest feature, “The Hateful Eight,” in Telluride. The sublime San Juans captured his fancy. But it was likely Colorado’s film-incentives rebate program that clinched the deal. Samuel L. Jackson’s recent selfie tweeted from the production added to our pinch-us-we-must-be-dreaming giddiness. The post-Civil War Western is slated for a fall release.
4. Earlier this month, “Keep on Keepin’ On” made the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ short list of feature-length documentaries still in the Oscar race. Alan Hicks’ uplifting story focuses on the profound connection of jazz legend Clark Terry and his student Justin Kauflin, who has been blind since age 11. Co-written and edited by local whiz Davis Coombe. (At the Sie FilmCenter.)
5. The next day, the big kahuna of U.S. filmfestivals announced Academy Award winners Daniel Junge (“Saving Face”) and Louie Psihoyos (“The Cove”) will each have new films competing in January’s Sundance Film Festival: Junge’s daredevil bio-doc “Being Evel” and Psihoyos’ “Racing Extinction.” Not a bad way to usher in a new year in filmmaking possibilities.
Of course, no end-of-year consideration would be complete without an attempt at a Top 10 list. This, too, feels like a first: I’ve tried to compile this list with little regard to what I should honor so much as what films moved me deeply, if differently. And, yes, my ballots for the American Film Institute Top 10 Movies and the African American Film Critics Association were different. For more, check out the Stage, Screen & In-Between blog http://blogs.denverpost.com/stagescreen/
Birdman (at the Esquire)
Selma (opens in Denver Jan. 9)
Ida (on DVD)
Calvary (on Blu-ray)
Interstellar (in theaters)
Locke (on Blu-ray and DVD)
The Theory of Everything (in theaters)
Keep on Keepin’ On (at the Sie FilmCenter)
Love Is Strange (On Blu-ray and DVD Jan. 13)
Boyhood (at the Sie FilmCenter, Jan. 16; on Blu-ray and DVD, Jan. 6)
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy
