Knowing You, Denver
A data-driven, community-designed film project exploring Denver’s diverse cultural landscape.
Community input through museum gallery visitors, and four focus group sessions were the first two phases of the project created during a 2022 Native Arts Artist in Residency at the Denver Art Museum, Denver Colorado.
The final phase of film production was created in late summer of 2024.
Phase 1: Community Input
The first phase of the project involved data collection from museum visitors and community members. Prompts and questions were placed in a gallery in the museum space, where visitors could write or draw their responses to the questions. During the early phase of the project, I begin categorizing this feedback in order to start building the framework for the film production. Many of the questions were designed to guide me on the locations shoot, sounds, color, and the look and feel for the film. Other questions were created to become more conversational talking points that we used in the focus groups during phase 2.
Prompts used in the gallery wall and in the focus groups.
1. What is the best time of day to experience Denver?
2. Imagine Denver as a color. What would it be?
3. What sounds do you hear in and around Denver?
4. What is the most important landmark in Denver and why?
5. What is the most critical issue facing Denver today?
6. Describe a memorable experience you’ve had in Denver.
7. The average Denver citizen can be described as …
8. What culture, ethnicity, or heritage do you most identify with?
9. If you can change anything about Denver, what would it be?
10. What’s Denver’s greatest resource?
11. If you can live in any Denver neighborhood, where would it be?
12. What’s your favorite ice cream?
Phase 2: Focus Groups
Four community focus groups were held at the Denver Art Museum. Each focus group included small cross section of community members who participated in a directed conversation about the Denver area. The goal of these focus group sessions was to gather stories and experiences from various local perspectives to help shape and inform the structure and narrative of the film.
Focus groups were documented in audio form and transcribed with permission from the participants. The transcriptions were archived, rearranged, and used to construct a poetic script which was used in the film.
Focus Group Ground Rules:
Speak one at a time.
Be courteous of others.
Speak for yourself, and not what you think others might believe.
Differing opinions and perspectives are expected; we may not agree on everything.
There are no wrong answers.
Phase 3: Film Production
During the final phase of the project, I invited two additional collaborators to help complete the film production.
Dr. Ramona Beltrán, a social scientist and Professor at the University of Denver, assisted in moderating the focus groups early on in the project and created a poem/script with the focus group audio archives.
Each focus group was recorded with audio, and Dr. Beltrán conducted a final listening session of all the audio recordings and created what she called, “poetic witnessing”, where she listened to the audio archives, wrote notes along the way, and then assembled these notes into a poetic response using the words and comments that came out of each focus group session. Each of the four poems then became a voice over script that was read by Denver community members for the film.
Once the poems/scripts were created, I invited Gabriel Fermin, a Denver cinematographer and Film Maker to work with me on constructing the rest of the scenes for the film. We used the poems/scripts Dr. Beltrán created as thematic guide lines for each scene. The final scenes were filmed with Denver community members, who improvised scenes based off of the themes thats emerged from the focus group conversations and comments.
Click the link below to read the poems that became the voice over script for scenes in the film.
Denver Art Museum, "Knowing You Denver", Installation view 1, 2024
Denver Art Museum, "Knowing You Denver", Installation view 2, 2024
Denver Art Museum, "Knowing You Denver", Installation view 3, 2024
Denver Art Museum, "Knowing You Denver", Installation view 4, 2024