Director’s Cut: Bringing It Back Home to Boulder

There’s an interesting thing that happens when you spend enough time in the film business.

You leave.

You go where the work is. Los Angeles. New York. A film festival somewhere you can barely find on a map. A set in the middle of nowhere. You chase stories, jobs, connections, and opportunities wherever they take you.

And if you’re lucky, you build a career.

But some of the people I admire most eventually figure out something else… you can bring some of it back home!

I’ve been thinking about that as Boulder prepares to welcome the Sundance Film Festival in January. There is tremendous excitement about who is coming here. Filmmakers. Producers. Actors. Executives. Journalists.

But there’s another story worth telling. It’s about the filmmakers who are already here.

Boulder has an extraordinary collection of creative professionals who have built successful careers well beyond Colorado, but continue to bring their experience, connections and opportunities back to this community.

Take Paula DuPré Pesmen.

Paula has the kind of résumé that makes the rest of us feel like maybe we should have worked a little harder. She has worked on everything from the Harry Potter films to Mrs. Doubtfire, The Cove, Chasing Ice and Porcelain War.

And where is she?

Boulder.

Not just living here. Contributing here. Paula has mentored young filmmakers, connected people with opportunities and founded There With Care, a non-profit supporting families facing critical illness. Now she is playing an important role in helping the Sundance Film Festival make its historic transition to Boulder. She continues to invest her experience and connections in Boulder and she truly knows what the Festival can mean for our local creative community.

That’s what bringing it home looks like.

Then there’s Ryan Van Duzer.

Ryan has built a huge social media following by riding bikes, going on adventures and telling stories. His work takes him all over the world, but Boulder and Colorado remain a big part of what his audience sees.

Every time Ryan features a Boulder trail, a Colorado bike route, a local business, or another creative person, he creates visibility for this place and the people who make it interesting. He also shows how much our industry has changed. Filmmakers no longer need a theater, television network or traditional distributor to find an audience. A talented storyteller with a camera and a digital platform can reach people around the world.

And Ryan keeps using that platform to bring attention back here. He was also the featured filmmaker for the recent launch of the Boulder County Film Commission’s CineBoulder Monthly Film Series, created to give local filmmakers not just a screen, but an engaged audience and a chance to connect with their own community.

Ryan says, “I regularly show off the beauty of Boulder (and Colorado) on my YouTube channel. I love this state with all my heart and it makes me proud to highlight the best that this city has to offer."

That idea is increasingly important to me.

Robin and Kathy Beeck represent another version of it.

Before they founded the Boulder International Film Festival, Robin was a documentary filmmaker whose films traveled to festivals around the world, and Kathy produced her sister’s films and traveled the festival circuit with her.

Then they took what they had learned and brought it home.

The result was BIFF.

More than two decades later, BIFF brings filmmakers, film lovers, and industry professionals together right here in Boulder and has hosted some of the biggest names in the business. About 25 percent of the films selected for the festival are from Colorado filmmakers.

That matters. Getting selected for a respected festival means an audience, exposure, connections and another credential for a filmmaker trying to build a career. Robin and Kathy created a platform that continues to lift up filmmakers year after year.

Personally, I’ve been making films professionally in Boulder for more than three decades. I’ve been fortunate in my career. Today, one of the most rewarding parts of being Boulder County Film Commissioner is figuring out how to use some of that experience to help the next person.

Maybe it’s connecting a filmmaker with a business that needs a video. Maybe it’s introducing two people at a Schmoozer who end up working together. Maybe it’s our Creative Expo, putting photographers, editors, animators and production companies in front of people who might actually hire them. Maybe it’s CineBoulder, giving filmmakers a screen and an audience right here in our community.

That is how a creative economy grows.

We talk a lot about economic development as attracting companies and talent from somewhere else. But something equally important happens when successful people stay connected to the place where they started. They hire locally. They mentor. They make introductions. They create festivals. They share someone else’s work. They use their platforms. They open doors.

As Sundance Film Festival prepares to shine a global spotlight on Boulder, remember that our creative community did not suddenly appear because Sundance Film Festival chose us.

It has been growing here for decades.

CU helped build it. Boulder Digital Arts helped build it. BIFF helped build it. Our filmmakers, production companies, photographers, editors, designers, agencies, writers, and countless other creative professionals helped build it.

Now we have an opportunity to make it even stronger.

If you have built a successful creative career, think about what you can bring back. A connection. An introduction. An internship. A job. A little advice. A post that puts someone else’s work in front of thousands of people.

You just have to remember where home is.