Denver Community Film Festival spotlights local journalism at Elitch Theatre

Over a hundred people filled the historic Elitch Theatre on May 21 for the second annual Denver Community Film Festival, where local journalism became the night’s main character.

Presented by Denver Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation, Bucket List Community News, the Colorado News Collaborative and the University of Denver, the event included a screening of “This is South Broadway,” by Denver’s Lucky District 7, and “Truth Be Told,” a documentary by Brian Malone about the work of journalists across the state and how they connect with their communities in times of limited resources, rising misinformation and growing public distrust. 

“It was definitely a success,” said Keith Meyer, president of the Denver INC. “Last year was kind of our test case, and I think this solidified the fact that this needs to be an ongoing community event every year for neighborhoods.” 

This marked the first time that the event was hosted at the Elitch Theatre, a historic venue founded in 1891 that quickly captured attendees’ attention.

“I think this is an absolutely gorgeous venue,” said Erick Arredondo, a Denver local who attended the event. “I’d never been here before; I used to work down the road.”

“It’s a really old spot,” added Angela Wissmueller, another local, about the venue.

Wissmueller had read about the event and decided to attend.

“Well, it means everything,” she said, referring to local journalism in Colorado. “That’s why I’m here. There’s a lot of digital out there, and that’s great. There’s a lot of good journalism on digital formats, but I like to read a physical newspaper.”

Arrendodo believes that events like these help foster community in the city.

“Seeing the people as a community together is something that we scarcely see,” he said, “like these third places that are available to everybody.” 

The screening of “Truth Be Told” sparked conversation about local journalism and its importance in Colorado. The film offers an inside look into journalists’ routines and the constant challenges they face in the profession. 

“I think it just gave me that perspective on the humanity behind it,” Arredondo said. “A lot of people see it purely as the articles or the people that you see on the screen, but they’re never seeing the work that goes behind it. I think it was an amazing insight into that.”

After the screening, local journalists hosted a town hall and answered some of the audience’s questions about journalism. Panelists were investigative journalist Nicole Vap; Patricia Calhoun, editor-in-chief of Denver Westword; Larry Ryckman, publisher and co-founder of The Colorado Sun; Micah Smith, evening anchor at Denver7; Brittany Winkfield, from Colorado Ethnic Media Exchange; Laura Frank, executive director of Colorado News Collaborative (CoLab). It was moderated by Vicky Collins, publisher of Bucket List Community News.

“It’s a labor of love,” Frank said, describing the art of journalism in an age of misinformation and shrinking newsrooms.

“Share the stories that are meaningful to you,” she said in response to an audience question about how the public can support local journalism. “The median news organization in Colorado has 2.35 people doing everything … find a way to subscribe or become a member.”

The discussion focused on several challenges that news organizations face today, particularly limited newsroom resources. According to Ryckman, this means that communities’ stories are not being told. 

“Once upon a time, The Denver Post had 370 journalists in its newsroom,” he said. “Today, they have 40 or 50 journalists, something like that. That’s a lot of stories that are not being told.”

Another challenge journalism faces nowadays is adapting to the age of social media. According to the World Press Institute 51% of Gen Z audiences, between 18 and 25 use social media as their primary news source. Micah Smith explained that in order to remain competitive, Denver7 needed to expand its social media presence. 

“We make money from clicks and views,” Smith said. “When we push you to social media, that’s another form of revenue. So that’s why we put our product on social media.”

But there is a generational divide and not everyone in the audience appreciated being redirected from their legacy newscasts to social media. Technology was also a relevant talking point in the panel. The panelists weighed in on the potential risks and benefits of AI use in newsrooms. 

“I’m excited for something that also scares the hell out of me, which is AI,” Ryckman said. “We’ve seen, in Chicago, a newspaper ran a book review that was written by AI, and AI made up one of the books. It’s just kinda crazy what’s happened.” 

Nonetheless, Ryckman acknowledged that artificial intelligence tools provided some advantages for the profession.

“If I don’t have a reporter who can sit and attend an entire city council, but that meeting has been recorded, AI can create transcripts, and I can say, ‘Tell me every time the city council talks about a water issue and give me some information about that,'” he added. 

Ultimately, the discussion reminded audience members that community journalism is deeply connected to everyday life and worth preserving.

“Communities suffer when news goes away,” Ryckman said. “There’s a reason the founding fathers created the First Amendment — society needs that watchdog to ask uncomfortable questions.” 

“I think collaboration is the way forward,” Winkfield adds about the future of journalism. “If we’re working together, we’re really getting more value out of the audiences that these different publishers have built over time.”

The event’s organization deliberately chose to focus on local journalism as the main topic for this year’s festival.

“We feel that local journalism is such a critical piece of neighborhoods and being involved in neighborhoods, and local journalists tell the story of neighborhoods,” Meyer said. “We really wanted to make sure that we highlighted that and highlighted the challenges that local journalists face and neighborhood journalists face and really have that conversation.”

After this year’s success, organizers have already started to look ahead. 

“There definitely will be a third Denver Community Film Festival next year,” Meyer said, “and we’re already talking about ways to get the word out better and get more different groups involved. There was more excitement about the second year than we had about the first, so we’re going to continue to keep building, which is great.”