There’s an ingenious moment in Wolfgang Petersen’s 1995 film Outbreak, a disease-themed thriller that follows the Ebola-like Motaba virus as it overtakes a small Northern California town, when an infected man goes to a movie theater to enjoy a flick and coughs obnoxiously around everyone. The action pauses to follow…
The runaway success of Logo TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race has brought the subculture of drag performance into the spotlight, creating a global platform for the fabulous personalities who can blur gender lines into a fine and ferocious powder, polish their faces with it and then command a stage. The year…
There aren’t many filmmakers who are in the right place at the right time to capture the start of a subculture; most documentary projects come together around an idea or movement when popularity is at a fever pitch — but by the time the dust settles and the film comes…
The mechanics of defining what is and isn’t art has tendered an ongoing debate since the discovery of drawings in caveman dwellings. How much do we as humans have to manipulate something before it becomes ours artistically? Levitated Mass, a new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Doug Pray (Surfwise, Art &…
In 1980, fresh filmmaker Charlie Ahearn was approached by graffiti artist Fred Braithwaite to see if he wanted to make a movie about the hip-hop scene in New York City through the music, dance and art that was erupting from every corner of the metropolis. Ahearn jumped at the chance…
When I was a young Colorado gay-ling, circa 1995, when I first heard about Aspen Gay Ski Week I thought, “Heavens to Betsy! Ski slopes full of gay men? Exactly how far away is Aspen?” Despite not caring a lick about skiing, I was seventeen and the idea of an…
Joel and Ethan Coen, the beloved filmmaking duo, have been gathering a cult following with their unique blend of darkly comic — or just flat-out dark or comic — films for over thirty years. From Fargo to O Brother, Where Art Thou? to No Country For Old Men and The…
Surreal French filmmaker Leos Carax is not a household name — but his last film, Holy Motors, was an accidental accessible art-house hit in 2013. Well, as accessible as a film with a scene featuring Eva Mendes being ogled by an underground troll sporting a real erection onscreen can be…
The last decade of film programming in Denver has done wonders to fill the gaps in any cineaste’s lexicon. And with the 2013 arrival of the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton, with its focus not only on first-run films but special repertory programming as well, many underrepresented genres have returned to…
For decades, fans of Stephen King’s The Shining have made a pilgrimage to Estes Park to visit the Stanley Hotel, the famous inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in King’s horror novel, and though the Stanley embraces its pop-culture connection and is overflowing with spooky hauntings and creepiness, one physical manifestation…
Chances are that when you think of Los Angeles, your mind pulls out a clip from a random movie you’ve seen over the years, depicting the city as a hot, dirty, sprawling mess of packed highways, teeming with crime and shifty characters. CalArts professor, filmmaker and L.A. resident Thom Anderson…
This was a great year to be part of the GLBTQ rainbow in Colorado. Gay marriage made gigantic strides and became a reality; numerous notables, from celebrities to artists and politicians, came out and made their voices heard. Though we don’t have a lock on celebrating, our straight brethren could…
Making an effective horror film that is both original and scary is a difficult puzzle to assemble in Hollywood, so when a filmmaker gets it right, it’s fun to break it down and see how all of the pieces fit together. One filmmaker doing it right is Denver native Scott…
In the 1944 musical Meet Me In St. Louis, Judy Garland (of course) introduced the world to the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which features this line: “Make the yuletide gay.” This could have been a watershed moment in homosexual pop culture, inspiring millions of people to turn…
The world of film has its auteurs and icons, and loyal viewers will line up to see a movie based on a director’s name alone. But the name of Mike Nichols guaranteed a film experience above almost all others, with a script that was top-notch and impeccable acting. Nichols had…
Hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since audiences first met a frumpy, bespectacled young filmmaker named Michael Moore in his debut feature, Roger & Me, following him on his quest to find and talk to the CEO of General Motors, Roger Smith, about scores of factory layoffs that…
A new documentary called Jingle Bell Rocks! hopes to tear away the wrapping on a unique underground scene: alternative Christmas music junkies. This is a label not to be worn with the shame of an ugly holiday sweater, as discovering or even producing an alternative to the well-worn jingles of…
Fans of Japanese animation had their hearts broken last February when director Hayao Miyazaki announced that his film The Wind Rises would be his last and that Studio Ghibli, the animation house that has yet to produce a film that didn’t resonate with or steal the hearts of millions of…
Anyone can catch American Hustle or Dallas Buyers Club on the big screen, but there aren’t a lot of opportunities to see the short films that have been nominated for the 86th Academy Awards, which will air on March 2. So film buffs may want to check out the Oscar…
