Author Julian Rubinstein won a national Emmy for The Holly last week in New York.
The film is based on the award-winning book he reported and wrote over eight years in Denver, The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood. It was executive produced by Academy Award-winner Adam McKay and features Denver activist Terrance Roberts. For more on the film, go here.
The book is a multi-generational story of a northeast Denver neighborhood and a gang shooting case that provides a rare window into the political machinations of gentrification, power, gang politics and activism in the Mile High City.
The documentary is mostly the dramatic third act of the book, which Rubinstein filmed as bullets flew in Northeast Park Hill around Holly Square, one of the most fascinating and coveted pieces of real estate in Denver for decades, formerly the center of Denver’s civil rights movement, later headquarters of Denver’s Bloods and then the site of a corrupt federal anti-gang effort as the neighborhood rapidly gentrified.
It was also where the well-known anti-violence activist Terrance Roberts shot Hasan Jones at his own peace rally. That shooting, wildly misunderstood and miscovered by the media, is at the heart of the book and film.
The project has now won 10 awards, including three for the book and seven for the film.
The film is streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple Plus and Tubi.
Watch the trailer here:
You can also see what Rubinstein said about the project while accepting the Emmy in New York here:
