“The Holly” lawsuit dropped as film wins red carpet upgrade at Denver Film Festival

Two Denver men suing author-director Julian Rubinstein and his production team over “The Holly” book and film withdrew their lawsuit on Thursday after admitting they hadn’t actually seen the movie they were suing him over.

At the same time, “The Holly” documentary grabbed a surprise, last-minute red carpet spot at the Denver Film Festival. The unusual addition came after previous “Holly” showings on Nov. 6 and Nov. 9 quickly sold out, prompting widespread demands for more tickets, according to producers at Denver Film.

The film will now screen as a red carpet selection at the 2,225-seat Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Nov. 10.

While the two events are not directly related, they symbolize another week of wins for “The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood.” Both the book and the documentary investigate and critique Denver’s gang scene and the city’s use of informants. They’re centered around activist Terrance Roberts and the Holly Square area of North Park Hill, as well as Denver’s news media and political machinery.

The defamation claim against Rubinstein and his publisher first appeared on May 10, and was amended on July 14 to include the film’s producers after its release — it had hit the festival circuit at Telluride Mountainfilm just weeks before. The creative team was served papers in September, according to public filings.

Interview subjects Sheria Hicks and Pernell Hines alleged libel and slander in Rubinstein’s portrayal of them as active gang members, despite working for the city’s anti-gang program. But Rubinstein and lawyer Steve Zansberg warned them their lawsuit was going to fail based on a wealth of evidence to the contrary.

Hicks and Hines were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

“Many of the things claimed as defamation in the lawsuit were neither in the book nor the film,” Rubinstein said over the phone, hours after a judge approved the dismissal. “They actually admitted they hadn’t even seen the film. I’m also not sure if they’ve read the book. It was simply an attempt to block the publication of information that is in the public interest.”

Denver District Court Marie Avery Moses dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, according to the document signed Thursday, Oct. 22, meaning it cannot be refiled again.

Rubinstein grew up in Denver and worked for eight years on the “The Holly” after reading about it in New York City. “The Holly” book has won major regional prizes in recent weeks including the Colorado Book Award for General Nonfiction, and the High Plains Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. Its debut screening in at Telluride’s Mountainfilm walked away with that festival’s Audience Award, and a recent “Holly” event at the Denver Press Club forced an overflow crowd out of the room in which it was being held.

Notably, “The Holly” also picked up as executive producer Hollywood heavyweight Adam McKay, the Oscar-winning director of films like “Don’t Look Up” and “The Big Short.”

Rubinstein said he and Zansberg notified Hicks and Hines they would be filing an anti-SLAPP motion, which protects the media from frivolous lawsuits meant to prevent the publication of public interest stories. Had the lawsuit been dismissed on that basis, Hicks and Hines would have had to pay Rubinstein’s legal fees.

“We had never answered them in court, and we made no concessions before (the dismissal),” said Rubinstein, who first learned of the lawsuit earlier this year during a media interview. “That’s because it’s a smear campaign that had no truth in it.”

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.