Michael Moore has proven that it’s possible for left-leaning documentaries to find a home in the multiplexes. But for most makers of progressive films, widespread distribution — or any distribution — is as distant as the expression on George Bush’s face. Fortunately, since 2003, ArgusFest’s Jason Bosch has presented free…
The LGBT community is an active producer of independent film. But not many titles make it to the major theaters. Fortunately Denver has a viable outlet for queer cinema. Now in its sixth year, the Cinema Q festival (formerly Seeing Queerly: The Denver International GLBT Film Festival) creates a local…
When Denver-based movie director Alexandre O. Philippe came across a copy of Hamlet that had, according to its cover, been restored to the “original” Klingon text, it opened a door to a strange world called the Klingon Language Institute, whose members study and speak the made-for-TV tongue that linguist Mark…
A native Denverite and devoted alumnus of East High School, actor Don Cheadle has impressed movie audiences in everything from Devil in a Blue Dress to Ocean’s Twelve. But when he starred as the quiet manager of a four-star hotel in Hotel Rwanda, last year’s troubling drama about genocide and…
Landmark’s Mayan Theatre continues to expand its commitment to good eats and drinks. Longtime patrons can still snatch up old faves like the big, fat bagel dogs, Odwalla juices (try the Mango Tango) and Alternative Baking cookies (Explosive Espresso Chip suits us fine). But if you’ve never sprinkled your popcorn…
Generally speaking, a ‘plex is a ‘plex. But the fifteen-screen Denver Pavilions in downtown Denver offers a couple of advantages over its suburban counterparts: free underground parking (with validation) in a roomy adjacent structure, and the proximity of good food and drink in many establishments on Denver’s 16th Street Mall…
The best thing to happen for Denver-area film buffs in decades, the Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli presents a year-round selection of art-house fare, independent features and revival screenings that rivals the best offerings in cinema-rich cities like New York and San Francisco. Recent programs have included a series of…
In the course of a long and illustrious movie career, the star of Driving Miss Daisy, Glory and The Shawshank Redemption has intrigued audiences with his versatility and his gift for nuance. So when Morgan Freeman visited the Denver International Film Festival last October, ticket-holders were in for a rare…
John Sayles’s elaborate political fable Silver City was less than boffo at the box office, and its cautions about the corruption of the electoral process didn’t fly with a weary public amid the bloodiest, most divisive election-year brawl America had experienced since 1968. But this dark comedy about the nitwit…
The Colorado Convention Center has bigger fins than a ’57 DeSoto and is lit up like a laundromat at night. So it can be hard to notice the fabulous rusted-steel sculpture sitting out front, “Indeterminate Line,” by international art star Bernar Venet, that’s situated on the lawn along Speer Boulevard…
Last August, Mayor John Hickenlooper got everyone’s attention with the announcement that the City of Denver had agreed to receive the paintings and drawings in the estate of abstract-expressionist master Clyfford Still. The multimillion-dollar gift from the estate’s trustees was made in exchange for a promise that the city would…
The beleaguered and financially strapped Museo de las Américas has been rudderless since founder José Aguayo stepped down a few years ago. But hope for a turnaround spiked late last year, when Patty Ortiz was brought on as director. Ortiz spent five dedicated years at the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver,…
With all the creepy stuff on display at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, including mummies, Quest for Immortality was guaranteed to bring in the crowds. And it did. Tens of thousands marched through the blockbuster collection of ancient Egyptian tomb art during its several-month-long run. The show, sponsored…
Last summer, Dianne Vanderlip, head of the Modern and Contemporary department at the Denver Art Museum, put together scene Colorado / sin Colorado, an exhibition devoted to the work of some of the state’s top artists. Drawn from the DAM’s permanent collection, the show focused on mid-career talents as opposed…
It started as a museum devoted to the work of a single artist, Vance Kirkland, but the Kirkland Museum has expanded its collecting scope greatly over the years, and now has an exhaustive collection of decorative art on display. Kirkland director Hugh Grant has also avidly sought out artworks by…
As a curator, Cydney Payton is at her best when dealing with art she really loves, which is why Dots, Blobs and Angels was so darned spectacular. Payton’s a fan of John David Rigsby’s work, and it’s easy to see why. The quality of the paintings, sculptures and drawings that…
Emerson Woelffer: Life in the Abstract, at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, wasn’t large, but it was definitely grand. Woelffer, one of the best of a generation of abstract expressionists working in southern Colorado in the ’50s, is mostly remembered instead as a Los Angeles artist. When he lived…
A traveling show out of New York, True Grit addressed the work of a group of women artists who rose to prominence before the feminist revolution of the ’70s. Organized by Katherine Crum of the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, the exhibit included pieces by Lee Bontecou, Jay DeFeo, Nancy…
Studio Aiello typically hosts big, unwieldy group shows in its big, unwieldy building, and only rarely presents solos. That’s surely because few artists have enough work to fill it. But Boulder painter Virginia Maitland came up with enough to cram the gallery — and its storage room — to capacity…
The title of Repeat Offenders indicated that each artist in this group show did work in a series. That was a fairly open-ended qualifier, since nearly all artists create their pieces that way. But the handle gave Singer Gallery director Simon Zalkind an excuse to feature artists whom he felt…
San Francisco artist Rex Ray is perhaps best known for his graphic designs for Apple Computer, Bill Graham Productions and David Bowie. But he’s a fine artist first, as demonstrated by the knockout show Rex Ray: Recent Work at Rule Gallery. Ray, whose real name is Michael Patterson, lived for…
It was a brilliant stroke last spring when the Robischon Gallery, the city’s flagship, presented two sculpture shows, John Buck and Manuel Neri, and installed them back to back. The show illustrated how the two artists compare and contrast with each other. Both are masters of contemporary sculpture who work…
