When the Denver Film Society named Bo Smith executive director last September, it was a feather in the cap of one of the city’s vital arts organizations.
Smith, 60, is an industry veteran and had served as head of film and video at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, a prestigious, 21-year gig marked by improved, and more diverse, programming.
“This is one of the things that appealed to me about Bo,” says Nina Henderson-Moore who recently ended her stint as chair of the board. “We were looking for someone who had a track record working with diverse communities, someone who could program 365 days a year.”
But what did it really mean to bring new blood to an 11-day festival that, by all accounts, is already pleasing to a public that lines up to buy tickets?
And what impact would it have on the society’s other major operation, the eight-screen Starz FilmCenter, a treasured community movie house that makes innovative fare available on a regular basis to Denver’s moviegoers?
The future is shaping up rather quickly.
In mid-March, the film society sent out its first press release under Smith. The three-plus pages outlined programming initiatives and enhanced community partnerships with such organizations as the Jewish Film Festival, the XicanIndie Film Festival and Asian Avenue magazine. It was a promising articulation of the film society’s mission to “to develop opportunities for diverse audiences to discover film through creative, thought-provoking experiences.”
But a number of changes had already taken place, seemingly under the radar. For example, one had to be a close reader of the e-newsletter to film society members to learn that the film society had cut back its hours of operation. Or you could simply have been a moviegoer who arrived at the FilmCenter one Monday or Tuesday night to suddenly find locked doors and dimmed lights.
More muffled still was the change in Starz Denver Film Festival honchos Britta Erickson and Brit Withey’s titles. They used to run the show. Now, Erickson is associate director; Withey is director of programming.
Only a year earlier, their promotions — to festival director and artistic director respectively — had been announced with much ado, as was society cofounder Ron Henderson’s stepping down as artistic director. (He remains senior programming consultant.)
Smith’s commitment to filling the Starz FilmCenter with diverse audiences remains constant. But the other changes have created a mood of concern, especially about the impact these shifts might have on the Starz Denver Film Festival, one of the region’s brightest gems.
Although it takes place in November, now is the time of year when programming for the festival begins in earnest. So it is an opportune moment to raise questions about the direction of the Denver Film Society and its vital siblings, the Starz FilmCenter and the Starz Denver Film Festival.
What is the Starz FilmCenter, and why does it matter?
The Starz FilmCenter is a multiplex on the Auraria campus where the film society screens indie, art-house and world-cinema fare. It’s also where the bulk of the film festival’s screenings, panels and non-red-carpet events take place.
A little less than two years ago, it became home to the film society’s offices, and it showed movies to the public seven days a week.
“Being closed on Monday and Tuesday was only about having more successful shows,” says Smith, explaining the paring-down. And frequent visitors to the FilmCenter know that there were many nights when it could be a ghost town.
Two fewer nights a week isn’t a movie buff’s dream, but the idea of tightening and focusing might be paying off.
“We’re attracting the same number of people we did with 100 shows with 60 screenings,” says Smith. “Each screening is a better experience.”
Local filmmaker Jamin Winans’ fantasy parable “Ink” is now in its sixth week, playing to robust crowds, enough to institute a fan night. Monty Miranda’s “Skills Like This,” another locally produced and shot feature, opened at the FilmCenter on Friday. Both reflect Smith’s desire to build relationships with area filmmakers.
“I was brought on to make the year-round operation more successful and to deal with the educational areas,” says Smith. The changes in staff titles reflect an all-hands-on- deck approach; no one, he says, has been demoted.
“The word that we’re using is a blending of staff. So everyone’s involved in the whole operation,” he said.
A reorganization was needed, some donors felt, because the society wasn’t meeting its mandate of using film as a teaching tool for the public’s understanding of one another. The FilmCenter never was meant to be merely an exhibition space.
“The educational piece hasn’t been what it needs to be,” says David Charmatz, the senior vice president of product planning and development at Starz Entertainment, who recently became the chair of the society’s board.
“That piece wasn’t getting the amount of attention it needed. We need someone who can pursue all the directions education can go.”
Smith is likely to hire an education point person soon. In September, the society’s longtime association with University of Colorado Denver instructor and film critic Howie Movshovitz ended, leaving the society with no education liaison.
The Starz Denver Film Festival:
What has it done for Denver lately?
A city experiences its own stature through its cultural institutions and the buzz they create. Our chests got a little puffed up when Morgan Freeman, Francis Ford Coppola, Ang Lee, Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington arrived as festival guests.
But Denver’s savvy moviegoers know that glitter is part of the pleasure, but not all of it. A lack of celebrity names at last fall’s festival — organizers simply couldn’t line up stars — didn’t significantly damage energy or attendance. The fest drew big crowds. The movies, led by “Slumdog Millionaire” were a treat.
“The easiest way to judge a successful festival is the energy level that is generated— and how many of your shows are full or almost full,” says Smith. “Our festival stacks up about as good on that scorecard as any. We have multitude of shows, crossing a broad range of different types of films and 40 or 50 percent of shows that are sold out.”
The best festivals succeed because of a good mix — programmers must understand their audiences’ overlapping and divergent tastes. It’s a skill honed over time. Good programmers play to their audiences’ interests, but also nudge them toward the untried.
“Denver Film Festival’s strength is recognizing what it is — a great regional festival, rather than striving to be a market festival like Sundance or (Austin, Texas’) South by Southwest,” says filmmaker Daniel Junge.
Which comes first to the film society: the festival or the Starz FilmCenter?
That’s the question Bo Smith must answer — and balance. Both the venue and the event contribute to the public’s perception of what the Denver Film Society is and, by extension, how important film is to the city.
The festival ought to remain a celebration of cinema, as well as the savvy launching pad for talented young filmmakers that it has become.
And the FilmCenter must reach out beyond the usual suspects and introduce new audiences to the pleasures — and the power — of film.
The art of the festival and the diversity of the education program don’t have to be at odds.
“If we’re known in five years equally for our wonderful film-center programming and our film festival, that would be success,” says former board chair Henderson-Moore.
“Where people in Denver can say, ‘I have had a touch-point with that place, those programs.’ And people nationally can say, ‘I was a part of that program.’ Wouldn’t that be huge?”
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com; also on blogs.denverpostcom/ madmoviegoer
