Granted, there are seven classes of Emmy Awards. But Denver filmmaker Julian Rubinstein just won one of the big ones. On June 26, “The Holly” was named Outstanding Regional Documentary at the 49th annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, hosted by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York City.

“The Holly” is believed to be the first film produced and set in Denver to have ever won an Emmy Award, though such assertions are difficult to empirically confirm.

The film follows Terrance Roberts, who was released from prison and started a thriving community center until he shot a rival gang member five times just as a peace rally he had organized was set to begin. The film asserts that the Blood who came after Roberts was acting on orders from active gang leaders who were on the payroll of the federal anti-gang task force working through the city of Denver.

Roberts recently ran for Denver mayor. Rubinstein called him “the embodiment of a Black Panther today.”

In accepting the award, Rubinstein said: “This began as an investigation of a gang shooting involving a community activist that just didn’t add up, and it ended up with an eight-year investigation that basically uncovered … the systematic and deliberate use of criminal organizations, including especially informants, to take down community leaders … and finding a clear connection to gentrification and violence.”

Rubinstein is currently Filmmaker and Journalist-in-Residence at Western Colorado University in Gunnison. Of the fallout from the film, he said: “We were slandered, we were sued, we’ve been threatened – and I’m now in a protection program.”

Joining Rubenstein in accepting the award were producers Dia Sokol Savage and the intentionally lower-cased donnie l. betts, himself an award-winning Denver filmmaker. 

The film is now streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple Plus and Tubi.