“The Holly” might seem like a story only Hollywood could dream up. It has elements of struggle against institutional power, government corruption, and a protagonist living a reformed life determined to save a neighborhood from encroachments of violence and gentrification.
This documentary, based on Julian Rubinstein’s book released last year, premiered at Mountainfilm in Telluride this weekend. It traces the story of Terrance Roberts, a former Bloods gang member from Denver's Northeast Park Hill turned anti-gang activist.
The film follows Roberts through his 2015 acquittal for shooting Hasan “Munch” Jones, a member of the Bloods whom Roberts had formerly mentored. The shooting took place at a peace rally two years earlier that Roberts had organized at the site of a former shopping center in Holly Square.
The shopping center had been burned down in a gang dispute several years before Roberts’ rally.
In addition to Roberts’ story, the book — “The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood” — covers history of Northeast Park Hill over several generations, a who’s-who of Denver’s police department and city government throughout decades. It uses Roberts’ story to weave a narrative of gentrification, economic oppression, race, violence and police misconduct.
It also tells a story of the Holly Square shopping center as a hub, both literal and figurative, of economic and social forces that shaped Northeast Park Hill.
The book and film portray Roberts -- who announced a run for Denver mayor earlier this year -- as a man determined to change the future of a neighborhood plagued by gang violence through Prodigal Son, an initiative he founded to divert kids from gangs, and other community programs.
But for as much praise as the book and documentary have received -- the book was an Editors' Choice in the New York Times last summer and the documentary won this year's Audience Choice Award at Mountainfilm -- it has had a divisive reception from people connected to the neighborhood.
Much of the frustration has centered on Rubinstein’s portrayal of Northeast Park Hill. Critics say the book paints a Hollywoodized picture of the area as singularly defined by gang violence and that it reinforces stereotypes about Black neighborhoods.
Park Hill resident Terrance Brown drinks a slushy while riding his bike past Holly Food Market across the street from Holly Square on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, in the Park Hill neighborhood in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Denver Gazette)
Community activist and now Denver mayoral candidate Terrance Roberts is the subject of 'The Holly,' which won the audience award as Best Documentary at the 2022 Denver Film Festival.
“It's not 'Boyz n the Hood,'” said LaMone Noles, the vice president of the Northeast Park Hill Coalition.
"But he's selling the book to people outside of the community who don't really give a damn, but will believe what they read, because that's what people want to believe about the Black community."
To be clear, those who spoke with The Denver Gazette didn’t call into question Roberts’ experiences or his life trajectory. And they don’t say Northeast Park Hill hasn’t had gang violence.
But for these critics, the use of Roberts’ life story makes misleading generalizations about Northeast Park Hill. To them, the book's title ties the neighborhood to a reputation of violence, and especially the last part — “The struggle to save an American neighborhood” — sums up their frustrations with how they see the area’s depiction. They ask, who said we needed saving?
“That book is (Roberts’) experience as being a gang member, and his transitional journey that he went through in his life,” said James Chapman Jr., who has lived in Northeast Park Hill since 1969 and owns Novelties Gift Shop by Holly Square.
“The Holly was traditionally a retail mecca for Northeast Denver, the Park Hill neighborhood. And it created middle class wealth. … And this book is portraying that we're not hard-earning, working-class people.”
Rubinstein has his own frustrations with perceptions that his book paints the area with a broad brush. He says his book and film have never been intended to represent the whole neighborhood. They’re meant to tell the story of a specific subculture of violence that has led to the deaths of too many young people that he believes haven’t gotten enough attention, he said.
“This book is not about the people in Park Hill who did not experience it. This book is about a subculture. This book is about a small, but very violent and very problematic piece of this neighborhood.”
To longtime residents of Northeast Park Hill frustrated with portrayal of the area, the book has tangible consequences. They say perception that the section of Denver is dangerous can chill investment in development. Though the area has hubs such as a post office, the Hiawatha Davis Jr. Recreation Center and the Center for African American Health, development in the Holly Square shopping center site has stagnated in the past several years.
Groups such as the neighborhood association want to see the site turned into a mecca once again of places that are cornerstones of any community: A grocery store, a library, housing units.
"It is inequitable that with all the development that goes on in this city ... nothing has been done at Holly," said Kevin Marchman, president of the Northeast Park Hill Coalition and chairman of the National Organization of African Americans in Housing. He believes "The Holly" book does the area a disservice.
"Seeing how community reacts to where something is placed is very important. There's been no development over there for some time."
And investment in physical places that serve as community anchors are a key to keeping kids out of situations that could lead them to gangs and violence, some of these residents say.
“The rec center is not going to disappear. The Boys and Girls Club is not going to disappear. The library's not going to disappear,” Chapman, the gift store owner, said.
“Those create stable living environments where adults could be comfortable (with) where their kids could be, and not have to worry about safety issues.”
Julian Rubinstein in Denver on May 20, 2021. Rubinstein, a journalist and Denver native, recently published the book ‘The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood’. (Katie Klann/The Denver Gazette)
But Rubinstein takes issue with what he sees as an implication that development and a neighborhood's reputation should take priority over people losing their lives to violence.
“If you're going to tell an investigative journalist that they should not do a story that's been ignored and misunderstood for decades, not to do a story because it's going to chill development, I would say to that person, wake up and be a citizen in this city first, before you care about development.”
He added, “Denver is a city that has been overly worried about its perception, and not worried about the reality.”
Kwon Atlas , who spent part of his childhood living in Northeast Park Hill and founded the local Five Points Atlas newspaper, doesn’t agree that the portrayal of the area in Rubinstein’s work will negatively affect investment in development as some others are concerned about. Shifts to the neighborhood from changing demographics and gentrification have already happened, he said.
"I don't really buy into that. I do think that what it’s going to do instead is feed into folks who don't fully understand the picture," said Atlas, who attended an advance screening of the documentary at Denver’s Sie FilmCenter on May 18. "I think it's going to fuel ideas around Black people in general,” and could contribute to "negative connotations and beliefs.”
But Atlas believes the story told by the documentary is important to be heard because it may help people understand the economic and political forces that hamper progress in reducing gang and youth violence. He’s found himself thinking about whether the film could help with forward motion in violence prevention.
“It begs the question of, should gang members as well as formerly associated gang members be part of the solution? And that's very interesting.”
Atlas said people should see the film and draw their own conclusions. But he added it’s important for people who aren’t Black who see the film to understand how environments that allow gangs and violence to proliferate are linked to economic oppression of Black people.
“I think the Black community should watch it. I think there should be dialogue around it. And I think folks who are not Black watching it, really have to watch it coupled with education.”
Noles, the vice president of the neighborhood association, said she’d like to see Rubinstein hold a screening of the documentary in Northeast Park Hill, so people in the community can respond to him directly.
“The book is about us. It's about Black folks; it’s about our kids,” she said. “And then he needs to be open to what we say to him about our reality.”
