Denver Film Festival Must-See Picks for November 10-12: Smoking Tigers and More

Again this year, Denver Film Festival artistic director Matt Campbell is offering his must-see picks for each day of the event — including many flicks that movie lovers might otherwise miss amid the flood of silver-screen goodies. Today he spotlights selections for November 10-12: Smoking Tigers, Hard Miles and Green Border.

Smoking Tigers
Directed by Shelly Yo
7 p.m. Friday, November 10, AMC House 4
4 p.m. Saturday, November 11, AMC House 4

Smoking Tigers is "an American independent film that's a really beautiful narrative about a Korean American family," says artistic director Matt Campbell. "The parents are splitting up, and the oldest daughter is at this kind of summer boot camp. It's like a test prep for the SATs, but it's very specific. There are all Asian kids in the class, with the typical overbearing Asian parents who want success for their children."

Elitism plays a part as well, Campbell notes: "The daughter is trying to fit in by disguising her background — not only her family troubles, but the fact that they're in the working middle class and they live in an apartment, whereas all the other kids live in big McMansions. She goes to parties and wants to fit in, so she fabricates a backstory." Also key to the tale is "the daughter's relationship with her father, who she really loves but is now distant from, because of her parents' separation," he adds.

The film is something of a period piece, since "it takes place in the early aughts, before cell phones and social media were as prevalent as they are now," Campbell explains. "It shows how teens socialized back then, but it's also a great character study that's very empathetic, and very revealing of the immigrant experience. It's presented in this very nuanced way — and the filmmakers are going to be here to talk about it."
Hard Miles
Directed by R.J. Daniel Hanna
3:30 p.m. Saturday, November 11, Denver Botanic Gardens
Hard Miles is "based on a true story from Colorado," Campbell says. "There used to be a school here called Ridge View Academy, and one of the social workers there was named Greg Townsend. It was a school for juvenile offenders, and the kids there were a tough lot, and the staff was trying to rehabilitate them, for lack of a better term. But Greg was a big cyclist, and he got these kids into cycling — and their maiden journey was riding 1,000 miles to the Grand Canyon."

Since that first trip, Campbell adds, "Greg took many cycling trips with these kids, and some of them went on to become not just doctors and lawyers, but also professional cyclists."

Both Townsend and Matthew Modine, who portrays him in the film, are expected to attend the DFF screening, which Campbell expects to be emotional. In his view, "It's a really inspirational, uplifting film."

The following news story features clips from and interviews about Hard Miles:
Green Border
Directed by Agnieszka Holland
2:15 p.m. Sunday, November 12, Sie FilmCenter
According to Campbell, Green Border is a film whose no-holds-barred truth-telling could lead to changes in the way nominations for the Academy Awards are selected. "It's a controversial film in a certain sense," he says, "and it's actually been in the news."

Director Agnieszka Holland's opus deals with "a group of African refugees — migrants — who are trying to make their way from the border of Belarus into Poland, and their plight of being pawns in a geopolitical game between the two countries," Campbell says. "Basically, they're trying to gain access to the E.U., but once they get to Poland, the border guards round them up, put them into a truck and then send them past barbed wire back into Belarus. Then the people in Belarus do the same thing."

Predictably, Campbell says, "the Polish government is no fan of the film. In fact, they have pressured festivals to pull it, and although they've allowed it to screen in Poland, it shows with a disclaimer that's basically propaganda before the film."

Officials in charge of designating the official Academy Award hopeful for Poland did not select Green Border to represent the country — and while concerns about ideology trumping quality have arisen before regarding the Oscars, the complaints over this snub are arguably louder than ever. "There's been a lot of talk about countries that don't support films that are critical of them," Campbell says.

Still, he doesn't want the tumult over the Polish authorities' slight against Green Border to obscure its cinematic attributes. "The film tells an important story in a very impressive way. It's in black and white and obviously intense, but also fascinating," Campbell says. "When we Americans see, we won't be surprised by what happens, because we're used to suspecting not only our own government, but all governments in our modern age. But obviously, the government of Poland doesn't see it that way."
Find tickets for the 46th Denver Film Festival here.