With the rollout of The Holly complete (except for this week’s San Quentin Film Festival, see below), and at a time when public corruption + intimidation tactics are rising, I thought I’d reflect on nearly a decade of work.
This summer, The Holly won a national Emmy in New York, marking 10 awards for the project (book and film) and making this documentary the first feature film about Denver to win a national Emmy.
Onstage at the Emmys, I spoke about the findings of what became an 8-year investigation: something akin to a new COINTELPRO happening in plain sight: a systematic and deliberate effort by powerful politicians, developers and law enforcement leaders to use violent gang members to intimidate and even attack activists and political enemies. (Watch it here.)
First, it’s inspiring that independent film can have such impact. We became part of the national conversation on gentrification, gun violence, misuse of informants, and what seems to be a little understood issue: that criminal organizations have much more than just a toehold in American communities. Through their (often illegal) partnerships with law enforcement and elected officials, criminal org’s hold sway and influence over politicians and developers whose complicity in these groups’ misdeeds makes them unwilling to speak out or stop them.
In Denver, the most obvious example is current mayor Mike Johnston, who shared his state senate office for nearly five years with four active criminal gang members. As I reported, they operated a corrupt federally funded “anti-gang” program out of his small office in the Holly. My film (and in more detail in my book) revealed that these active criminal gang members (whom like Johnston are in the book and film) were also involved in plotting to take out Terrance Roberts on the day of the shooting that shook the city. Terrance had vocally opposed the city’s anti-gang effort and its redevelopment of the historic Holly Square.
Johnston has avoided comment on the disturbing (and possibly criminal) activity that happened in his office, and why he shared it with four known criminal gang members. As John Moore of the Denver Gazette wrote, this is a film that “many of the most powerful people…do not want you to see.” (It is streaming now on Prime, Apple Plus and Tubi.com; here’s the trailer.)
Consequences from my reporting include the removal of at least one problematic high ranking police official and a deepened public understanding of Denver’s (and other cities) street violence, policing, crime, activism, misuse of informants, and the interconnected efforts of its biggest power players. Some influential organizations in Denver, including the Denver Foundation and History Colorado, embraced lessons about their own accountability and held public events to screen and discuss the film. The Rocky Mountain NAACP endorsed the film, helping us refute the many falsehoods and attempts to undermine it made by people and groups who were exposed.
Opportunities were missed when it came to media accountability, as some of Denver’s media—whose coverage was revealed to be problematic or unethical—declined to address the problems, and in some cases helped spread falsehoods about the project. In Denver, like many cities, some media entities are part of the city’s power structure and will circle the wagons to protect it.
Some people either erroneously or purposefully tried to suggest that the film and/or book were puff pieces on Terrance, whose complicated and nuanced life was not only investigated to the max but also fully displayed. (The New York Times review of the film described him aptly as a “Shakespearean figure of forceful magnetism.”)
We defeated a bogus lawsuit intended to intimidate us into not releasing the film, survived an ocean of falsehoods, and even won a top national investigative journalism prize from the IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors), and two Emmy’s. My book was a New York Times Editors Choice, and winner of the Colorado Book Award + the High Plains Book Award, and is available everywhere.
In a win for the Colorado film community, the film became the first film that received funding from the Colorado Film Office’s tax incentive program (which began in 2012) to win a national Emmy, reminding us that while big budget Hollywood films may be good for Colorado’s economy, our local filmmakers are carrying their weight. At the Denver Film Festival, where the film won the Audience Award, The Holly sold more tickets than any film since Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine.
Perhaps the clearest impact was visible at our events, which often lasted until the building was closing. We screened the film and spoke at more than two dozen universities, hospitals, events, festivals and foundations around the country. People from these disparate communities often told me a similar thing: the story resonated for them because it made sense of problems they too faced from forces they hadn’t understood were connected.
**This week, in what is probably our last festival, we are thrilled to head to San Quentin, to join a stellar lineup at the only film fest held in a prison, San Quentin Film Festival, where inmates chose the films and will be part of our discussions. Read more here.
Thanks to all who supported this project. That support has given us so much strength in what we came to call the Battle for Truth about what is going on in our cities. Thank you!