Right before Hollywood became the headquarters of the American film industry, some producers had flocked to Colorado and used its craggy peaks and wild rivers as central backdrops in Westerns.
The Colorado Motion Picture Company operated in the rugged country around Cañon City starting in 1914, but the shoots quickly became dangerous.
Actor Grace McHugh’s horse tumbled over a boulder and spilled her into the mighty Arkansas River a mile upstream of Cañon City. A cameraman jumped in the swift current to try and rescue her. Both perished, and the film company eventually went bankrupt in 1918.
Still from the film “Pirates of the Plains,” produced by the Colorado Motion Picture Company. (Credit: Denver Public Library special collections)
Clark Farmer, who teaches film history and cinema studies at CU Boulder, said the quick rise and fall of this Western studio in Colorado is one of the earliest examples of the state’s very complex relationship with the film industry.
“I think the camera loves Colorado, but the cinema industry doesn’t necessarily love Colorado,” Farmer said. “Colorado has beautiful landscapes. It’s where the plains meet the mountains. On the other hand, there isn’t a strong tradition of filmmaking within Colorado.”
Some film buffs see the arrival of the Sundance <a href="https://cinemamix360.com/2026/11/02/ai-film-festival-japan-draws-730-entries-from-more-than-60-countries/" title="AI Film Festival Japan Draws 730 Entries From More Than 60 Countries”>Film Festival as a golden opportunity to start to change that.
Bruce Borowsky, Boulder County’s film commissioner, said the gathering puts a global spotlight on the state.
“Having filmmakers from literally around the world come to Boulder and see our town is so exciting, because it will give them eyes on the prize,” Borowsky said. “It will show them what we have going on here and how beautiful it is.”
Borowsky said the festival could also motivate small cities and towns in Colorado that are far from Boulder to get involved in the festival and showcase their own contributions to the art and film industry.
In some ways, film advocates are looking to recapture the magic that once led filmmakers to the state decades ago.
“Early on, people were coming to Colorado to see things that you wouldn’t have necessarily seen on the East Coast,” Farmer said.
That included early 1903 shots of the Georgetown Loop Rail Road.
A view of theGeorgetown Loop Railroadhigh bridge circa 1885. (Credit: Louis Charles McClure)
That continued into the 1950s, when Farmer said a “really wonderful” Western starring Jimmy Stewart was filmed in the city of Durango, the San Juan Mountains and other parts of the state.
“Director Anthony Mann really takes advantage of the mountain landscape of the Rockies to do something different with the Western,” Farmer said.
Stewart’s character in the film, “The Naked Spur,” was a psychologically damaged veteran of the Civil War trying to claim a bounty by hunting down an outlaw.
“You get this kind of mirroring of the rugged landscape and (Stewart’s) mental condition,” Farmer said.
Colorado has also had success becoming the backdrop for the ski and snowboard documentary industry, with Warren Miller Entertainment headquartered in Boulder.
But in the fast pace of feature film production, Colorado can be overlooked.
Erie looks like what?
Viewers who just tuned into Ridley Scott’s recent adaptation of Denver novelist Peter Heller’s “The Dog Stars,” a post-apocalyptic thriller, may have been surprised to see that a scene that was supposed to be set in Erie, Colorado, just down the street from Boulder, was filmed in the mountains of…Italy.
Farmer said it’s not uncommon for new feature films to be shot in places where they aren’t set.
The weather is more predictable in places like New Mexico than in Colorado, for example.
Other countries and shooting locations might offer more tax incentives. For example, Italy’s 40% tax credit on film production costs helped lure producers of “The Dog Stars” to film there.
Hollywood itself is also changing.
“Hollywood is shedding hundreds of jobs at the moment,” Farmer said. “It’s no longer the case that the film industry is centralized there. It’s becoming much more of a global film industry, which means all the people and infrastructure you would need to make a movie are scattered all over the place.”
In this competitive world, might a film festival that draws global attention help Colorado regain an edge?
Perks of landing a festival
Farmer said the imminent arrival of the Sundance Film Festival may not have an immediate impact on filmmaking in Colorado. The Telluride Film Festival started in 1974, and the only major feature film shot there since was Quentin Tarantino’s “Hateful Eight.”
But the Sundance Film Festival could bring something more important than that, Farmer said.
“One of the great things about Sundance coming here is that it’s a venue for films that may not be produced in the heart of the industry by Hollywood,” Farmer said, adding that the festival is a great example of what’s possible for students. “Sundance offers this kind of alternative vision to make films that are a little more personal. They have lower budgets but are doing something innovative—and that’s the type of filmmaking we want to get our students excited about.”
