America’s great divide over guns spilled out at the Denver Film Festival on Thursday with an emotional and sometimes contentious screening of the aptly titled new documentary “The Great Divide.”

Tom Donahue’s remarkably balanced film chronicles Colorado’s 2019 razor-thin passage of a so-called red flag law, which – when enforced – can temporarily prevent people who are exhibiting a high risk of hurting themselves or others from possessing firearms.

More than that, the film lays out a revealing timeline of this country’s intertwined violent gun history from the slave trade to the Sand Creek Massacre to Columbine to King Soopers.

It seems one side is perpetually asking, “How do we keep this from happening again?” while the other side is perpetually digging in their heels. (Both were represented among the audience – and made their feelings known in a post-film conversation.)

Donahue’s film gives voice to many who are directly impacted by the gun issue.

Dudley Brown, founder of the powerful Rocky Mountain Gun Owners lobby – which has adopted a zero-compromise policy toward gun-protection legislation of any kind, regardless of public support, delights in his promise to bring down any Republican politician who strays from his legislative agenda.

Tom Sullivan, meanwhile, recounts his blood-teared path from father of murdered Aurora theater victim Alex Sullivan to the State House, where he co-sponsored the Extreme Risk Protection Order (red-flag law) that later passed in the senate by only one vote. (He’s now a state senator.)

There’s Republican Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, who (to his great personal and political peril) advocated for Colorado’s red-flag law after his 29-year-old deputy Zack Parrish was ambushed on New Year’s Eve 2017 while trying to place a man on a mental health hold. And there is Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, who made national news when he said he’d rather go to jail than enforce the law because he believes it makes it too easy to take a person’s guns away.

Then there’s Indigenous artist Gregg Deal, who embarks on a journey to understand the horrifying circumstances that entitled a Methodist pastor and U.S. Army colonel to lead the mutilation of up to 600 surrendered Cheyenne and Arapahoe (about two-thirds of whom were women and children) at Sand Creek in 1864.

The film’s greatest achievement is that it will make anyone of any political persuasion seethe at different points. Brown can’t contain his amusement when he says, “If you can count the number of guns you have – you don’t have enough.” Deal can’t disguise his anger when he says, “This country is more committed to protecting guns than the people on the other end of the muzzle.”

The film builds to the climactic vote in the Colorado state senate, which is a defeat for the right and not quite the victory for the left that one might have thought. Because after the law passed, at least 37 of Colorado’s 64 counties declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.” One was El Paso County.

After the film, Karin Asensio, executive director of the Colorado Democratic Party, said flat-out: “The Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs happened because of a refusal to enforce the red-flag law. We have only five or six sheriffs in Colorado who are Democrats, which means we have very few who would want to enforce the law.”

Then again, despite his stated opposition, Dolores County Sheriff Don Wilson used the law in August 2020 to disarm a Dove Creek man who pointed a semi-automatic rifle at one of his deputies.

The film, of course, offers no non-existent answers for how to bridge “The Great Divide.” But a powerful case is made for education and teachers teaching our unvarnished history.

One of the most powerful moments I’ve ever seen on film comes when Donahue is interviewing a teacher who was a Columbine survivor herself. He asks her if she teaches her students about Sand Creek. She looks legitimately puzzled.

“Were you never taught about Sand Creek?” he asks. Her response: “No. Was that the name of another school shooting?”

SCREENING OF THE DAY

The Colorado-made “Soft Liquid Center,” starring and co-written by True West Award-winning actor Steph Holmbo, has been called “an indie horror masterpiece” (by Dread Central). It’s about a woman who has moved on from her toxic ex, but inexplicable events turn her home into a house of horrors. The film, scored by local musician Roberto Garza, won the award for best score at the 2023 Dark Red Film Festival. The cinematographers are Joseph Kolean and Zachary Gutierrez. 9 p.m. Friday and 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Sie FilmCenter.

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING TODAY?

So much. Emmy Award winning actor Larry Wilmore will produce a live recording of his podcast, “Black on the Air,” at 10 a.m. from the Jacquard Hotel in Cherry Creek … Director Andrew Haigh will receive the CinemaQ LaBahn Ikon Film Award (presented to an outstanding entertainment contributor from the LGBTQIA+ community) prior to a screening of “All of Us Strangers” at 7 p.m. at the Denver Botanic Gardens. In the film, a man drawn back to his childhood home discovers his parents appear to be living just as they were on the day they died 30 years ago. It features Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy.

TITLE OF THE DAY

“They Shot the Piano Player” tells the celebratory origin story of the Latino musical movement Bossa Nova in a film where animation meets documentary. 2 p.m. Friday at the Sie FilmCenter.

INFORMATION AND TICKETS

Go to denverfilm.org

MORE PHOTOS