02 May Mountainfilm: McKay Joins THE HOLLY Before World Premiere!
The stoke is at an all-time high as Mountainfilm returns to an in-person festival over Memorial Day weekend, May 26 – May 30, in Telluride followed by After the Fest Online, May 31 – June 7.
And now…
Writer, director, and award-winning journalist Julian Rubinstein’s highly anticipated anti-gang war documentary, THE HOLLY, just tapped Academy Award-winning filmmaker and Hyperobject Industries founder Adam McKay (DON’T LOOK UP, VICE, THE BIG SHORT) and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Todd Schulman (BORAT, BRUNO, Q: INTO THE STORM) as executive producers ahead of its world premiere at Telluride’s Mountainfilm over Memorial Day weekend.
Passes for both the in-person festival and After the Fest Online are now available for purchase here.
Raffle tickets are here for Alpacka Raft, Classic Packraft; The North Face Fleece Jacket; Panga 50L Duffel Bag; Osprey Daylite backpack.
Go here for more on Mountainfilm.
The feature-length doc titled THE HOLLY, is scheduled for its world premier at Mountainfilm, follows a gang war in an historic Denver neighborhood. The story is based on the powerful, celebrated, non-fiction book by director and journalist, Julian Rubinstein.
Terrance Roberts in footage from “The Holly.”
Executive producing alongside McKay and Schulman are Trygve Myhren, Kayvan Khalatbari, Chad Asarch, and K. Nicole Robinson Asarch, and Co-Executive Producer David Sirota.
The film is produced by Emmy-nominated filmmaker and theater founder donnie l. betts (MUSIC IS MY LIFE, POLITICS IS MY MISTRESS: THE STORY OF OSCAR BROWN, JR), Sarah Dowland (THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY, INNOCENCE FILES, ZERO DAYS), and Dia Sokol Savage (FINDING KENDRICK JOHNSON, WELCOME STRANGERS).
“I was completely blown away after seeing the rough cut of The Holly,” states McKay, “From income inequality, race, gun violence and corruption, this film is the macro of America in the micro.”
Based on Rubinstein’s New York Times Editor’s Choice pick, “The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood” (FSG, 2021), THE HOLLY takes place in the historic “Holly” neighborhood of Denver and highlights anti-gang activist Terrance Roberts.
When the film starts, Roberts – whose anti-gang work won him grants and awards — is facing life in prison. In an incident that shocked the city of Denver, Roberts shot someone at his own peace rally. The shooting happened in the so-called “Holly,” a section of a neighborhood that was once at the center of Denver’s civil rights movement and later became Roberts’ turf back when he was a gang member. The high-profile case becomes an unexpected window into the machinations of the gang war.
“After eight years of work, I’m honored that maverick thinkers and filmmakers like Adam McKay and Todd Schulman saw the significance of what we captured on camera.” says Julian Rubinstein, “THE HOLLY shines a light on the usually unseen connections between gentrification, strategic law enforcement efforts and street violence. As violence and activism in vulnerable communities rises, misconduct by informants and law enforcement’s questionable use of active gang members in undercover operations demand public oversight and understanding. This is not only happening in Denver. We just happened to have access to one such story as it played out in real time.”
Adam McKay, more:
Academy Award-winning writer, director, producer Adam McKay first made his name in the comedy world when he served as head writer for SNL and later co-wrote and directed numerous iconic comedies such as ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY, TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY, and STEP BROTHERS.
McKay’s latest feature, DON’T LOOK UP starring Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Meryl Streep, received four Academy Award and BAFTA nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, as well as a WGA Original Screenplay win for McKay and is one of Netflix’s most successful films of all time.
McKay’s additional credits include the Academy Award-, Golden Globe- and BAFTA- nominated VICE; the Academy Award-winning THE BIG SHORT, named one of WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century; FRESH starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan; and Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut BOOKSMART; Netflix’s DEAD TO ME; and writer/director Lorene Scafaria’s HUSTLERS.
McKay’s production company, Hyperobject Industries, has a wide-ranging focus from comedies, dramas, horror, documentaries, and documentary-series, that cover politically charged and challenging subjects with which McKay has become synonymous.
Todd Schulman, more:
Todd Schulman is an Emmy-nominated producer who works with Adam McKay at Hyperobject Industries.
From 2009 through 2017 Schulman ran Sacha Baron Cohen’s production company, Four By Two Films, where he worked on projects including BORAT and BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM, BRUNO, THE DICTATOR and WHO IS AMERICA?.
Recent credits include the HBO series Q: INTO THE STORM, PAINTING WITH JOHN, THE INVISIBLE PILOT and GAME THEORY WITH BOMANI JONES.
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