Overview:
The first Denver Community Film Festival was held on June 12 at the Holiday Theater by Denver INC and over forty other community groups.
When the doors of the MCA’s Holiday Theater opened on June 12, the lobby quickly filled with chatter and excitement as Denverites from across the city attended the first Denver Community Film Festival.
The event was co-hosted by the Denver Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC) and over 40 other community organizations, including media partner Bucket List Community News. The seats of the theater were packed with folks who were eager to view “Join or Die,” a documentary that encourages viewers to join a club to save democracy.
“I’m just really happy that we’re able to give this space some life,” said Joey Shearer, president of the Sunnyside Registered Neighborhood Organization (RNO) , who was attending the film screening. “Having INC be part of this is incredible, and I’m hoping that from an RNO standpoint, we can do more activities like this.”
“Join or Die” is based on the research done by political scientist Dr. Robert Putnam, author of the book “Bowling Alone.” The thesis of the film is that Americans are more divided than ever, as the percentage of Americans participating in clubs has been in decline since the 1950s.
The documentary explores several potential reasons for the decline, including the rise of television and social media, and offers a call to action on how viewers can help reverse the trend and get involved in a club or community.
“Join or Die” also highlighted community organizations, such as Red, Bike & Green, a biking collective based out of Atlanta, and Chicago Gig Alliance, which focuses on advocating for better working conditions for Chicago gig workers.
“I was flying all over the country every week to different communities, and no matter where I was going, whether it was a rural community in the north, in the south, urban community, across the board, I was hearing these same things from everyone that they were feeling like their democracy was not working as well as it should be, and that was on both sides of the aisle,” said the film’s director and co-producer, Rachel Davis. “People were feeling increasingly lonely, isolated and feeling that things were off.”
“Join or Die” was named after Benjamin Franklin’s political cartoon, which depicts a snake that is segmented into 13 pieces. Each piece represented one colony of early America and was used to convey what people could do when they worked collectively.
“We really liked that it played on these two aspects that we really wanted to hit on as a warning to the audience,” Davis said. “If we don’t join together, that does not bode well for our democracy.”
While the end result was focused on community engagement, that was not the filmmakers’ original intent. “We approached Robert Putnam the year he was retiring to see if we could capture this last semester of teaching,” Davis co-produced the film with her brother Pete Davis, who had taken a class taught by Putnam.
To harness the spirit of the film, tables were set up around the lobby to encourage connection for those who were viewing the film from different neighborhoods all across Denver. Name tags were handed to attendees to eliminate the feeling of being in the presence of strangers, and key community organizations, such as Bienvenidos Food Bank and Mile Long Table, were in attendance.
Noelia Aponte-Silva attended the film festival after hearing about it in a monthly newsletter from her neighborhood association. “I’m actually from Puerto Rico,” Aponte-Silva said. I’ve been here for 10 years living in Colorado, and I don’t have any family here, so having that connection with the people that live on my street and the block that I live, it’s really important for me.”
Following the showing of the film, there was a panel that included Davis and three Denver community leaders: Adrian Molina, an artist from Warm Cookies of the Revolution; Stephanie Martens, president of Denver Elks #17; and Angela Bomgaars, executive director of Extreme Community Makeovers. The panel was hosted by Vicky Collins, Bucket List’s publisher. Together, the group discussed questions related to the film’s themes and how their organizations contribute to their communities.
“It can be easy to focus on big-picture stuff, like national, global things, and that does seem super overwhelming,” Bomgaars said. For Denverites who don’t know where to start, she advises seeing what you can do in your community.
“When you take it down to more of a local level and realize, ‘Hey, I can do something for the person who lives across the street from me,’ or ‘I could show up and volunteer and do whatever that might be,’” Bomgaars said. “There’s so many different ways to show up.”
The organizations represented by the panel are just some of the many ways Denverites can give back. Hal Benninger, a resident of Cap Hill who was attending the screening, discussed a different aspect of community in an interview before viewing the film.
“I think something really important in defining community is who has ownership,” Benninger said. To them, what that means is, “Making sure that what we want to see is what’s represented and we are the people that are benefiting from those organizations.”
This was a sentiment that was echoed by the panelists at the Denver Community Film Festival.
“We want the politicians to do X, Y, Z, we want the corporations to do whatever it may be, or the rich people or whoever’s in power should be doing these things, and they’re not,” Molina said. “If we’re not doing the things on the day-to-day level, if we’re not doing the things in our homes, in our neighborhoods, that we want to see happen in the broader world, it’s not gonna happen. We have to do the things that we want to be done on whatever small scale it is.”
“Join or Die” is very transparent with its message about getting its viewers to join clubs specifically. It outright states that within the first 10 minutes of the movie. Martens represented that message as president of Denver Elks #17. Members of The Elks are able to go to any Elk Lodge in the country and be surrounded by other members of that community.
During the panel, Marten mentioned how having a space to commune is only part of the equation: “It’s nice to have a space, but you also need that engagement, which you can get at a space or at a park or meeting with another group of people, like-minded or non-like-minded, where you realize, oh, we share something in common.”
After viewing the film, attendees might not know where to start the journey of involvement. However, whether you want to join a club, participate in local events, or attend the next Denver Community Film Festival, there is always something to do.
“I think that these days, more than anything, I’m feeling like I don’t have control of a lot of things that are happening,” Aponte-Silva reminisces. “Having that connection with my local community means a lot. I feel like it’s a space where my voice can be heard and I can have an impact on it.”