A Home Grown kind-of Night at Denver Fest

The cinephile equivalent of locavores sure got their fill on Monday, as SDFF 31 laid out a sumptuous feast of Colorado-made films. From Fear & Dystopia and Microcosms to Cinemocracy: The Films and Faux Mouvements...and Other Excursions, shorts packages gave audiences a taste of such treats as The Spot - Alexandre O. Philippe's dreamlike meditation on the Dallas plaza where JFK was assassinated, and Come Back to Sudan, in which directors Patti Bonnet and Daniel Junge follow three wartime refugees on their first journey home. Speaking of Junge... the Denver Film Society extends warm congratulations to its longtime friend and colleague for the thrilling news that his documentary, They Killed Sister Dorothy, also showing in this year's Festival, has just made the short list for a 2009 Academy Award nomination.

Afterward, audiences got to meet the filmmakers living and working in their own backyards, whether at the lively reception hosted by Denver Open Media, the showcase of Denver bands that is the SDFF Music Lounge at 3 Kings Tavern, or the ever-hopping Argonaut Wine & Liquor Late Night Lounge presented by Urban Market Brokerage. (If you think that's a mouthful, wait'll you see the drinks lined up behind the bar.)

Ruth Tobias