The Denver Film Society will host a screening of “The Loneliest Road in America” on Thursday, May 5th at 7 pm at the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax, followed by a question and answer session with the film’s director Mardana Mayginnes and its star Colin Michael Day.
Colin Michael Day
After graduating from the University of Denver, Day and his classmate, Mayginnes, made the trek from Colorado to Los Angeles where Mayginnes took a position at a commercial house and Day continued his acting studies. Both young men had plenty of friends who had tried to make a go of it as screenwriters and performers in Los Angeles, only to get frustrated, sidetracked, and jaded within a couple of years. “We had a plan that we wanted to begin our careers by making our own material,” says Day. “We started to get restless, and one day, we went to a coffee shop, and we talked about an idea that would eventually become ‘The Loneliest Road in America.’” They used connections forged through work and friends, including director of photography and editor Tony McGrath, to put together a talented team. Finding a way to make their own project and create their own success seemed like a more rewarding path to take. McGrath, like many of the other crew of “Loneliest Road” were commercial veterans looking to break into feature films. Knowing they could rely on an eager, talented team made putting the production together that much easier.
Day stars as Jamie, a disillusioned recent college grad who finds himself strangely moved and changed by the road trip that leads him from his Colorado home, through the forgotten mining towns along Highway 50 in Nevada, to a friend’s home in Los Angeles. Along Highway 50 in Nevada – “The Loneliest Road in America” – they encounter the ravages of the mining industry that has left skeletons of once-prosperous towns. Against this backdrop, Jamie confronts the recognition that freedom and exploitation are inextricably linked and that his own personal relationships have followed the same road.
The film has strong associations with Denver. Day and Mayginnes both sowed the seeds of their current careers at University of Denver. Day is a Denver native and attended Regis High School. Local viewers will recognize that the opening scenes of the film were filmed in downtown Denver and along I-70 where it passes through the Eisenhower Tunnel and also through Glenwood Canyon in western Colorado.
Tickets are available online at www.denverfilm.org. The screening will be held at 2510 East Colfax Ave (Lowenstein CulturePlex.)
For more information please contact: Denver Film Society 303.595.3456 or visit www.denverfilm.org
