‘My Dad The Paper Boy’
Story and photo by Cara DeGette
Editor, Greater Park Hill News
It’s not really fair to ask a filmmaker to name the top five films ever made. Unless you agree to ask again every 15 minutes. So here goes:
1. The Godfather (I and II, never III)
2. Stroszek by Werner Herzog
3. Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights
4. Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window
5. Children of Paradise by Director Marcel Carné
Scott Kinnamon is a genial fellow. When he told his younger daughter Ella and her high school friends that he was getting interviewed for a profile in the Greater Park Hill News, they teased him and razzed him, and yes, thought it was kind of awesome. “My Dad the paper boy…”
That’s fine by Kinnamon. “Anytime you can give your 17-year old daughter ammunition, it’s fun.”
Kinnamon met his wife when they were in Boulder at the University of Colorado. They moved to Boston, and then Los Angeles, and then, their older daughter, who is now 22, was born.
“It’s hard to be a parent first in LA. It’s not a very forgiving place,” he says. The couple checked out Denver – that sleepy little city they remembered from the 1970s – and were startled. “What happened to Denver?” they marveled. “This place is awesome.” Arriving in Park Hill, Kinnamon says, “was home the way I imagined it, but never had it until I got here.”
Kinnamon runs the Young Filmmaker’s Workshop, through the Denver Film Society. That involves teaching young people, 12 to 17 years old, how to make a video story, guiding them through germs of ideas through to finished projects. Film is a powerful teaching tool, kind of stealth literacy. Just this summer 100 young filmmakers brought stories to life through Kinnamon’s workshops. Many of their videos are at his website, at scottkinnamon.com.
“The kids come up with the ideas, I help them get to the deep end,” he says.
Earlier this year the blockworker on his block had to stop delivering papers for some reason. When he heard the news, Kinnamon said, “I’ll do it!” So every month, he spends about 15 minutes – longer if he stops for a chat with a neighbor – walking his paper route, which runs from 26th to 28th avenues between Birch and Clermont. Sometimes his daughter Ella joins him.
“I like Park Hill, I like my block, I love being part of my community, and I love feeling connected,” he says.
In July, Kinnamon’s dad died. Kinnamon traveled to Chicago for the memorial. When he came home on Aug. 1, he found a stack of Greater Park Hill newspapers waiting for him on his porch. The first thing he did was deliver the new issue to his neighbors. It was good to get back to his routine, his life.
“It was interesting, realizing doing that little activity, gave me such solace,” he says.
It’s 15 minutes later, so here we go. The top five films ever made:
1. The Apartment by Billy Wilder
2. Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders
3. Grey Gardens by documentarians and brothers, Albert and David Maysles
4. Breathless (The 1960 original by Jean-Luc Godard, definitely not the 1983 version starring Richard Gere. Ugh.)
5. Bonnie & Clyde. Beatty and Dunaway.
Wait! Kinnamon says. God, wait. Orson Welles. Touch of Evil. Can there be a No. 6?
Yes, Scott. That will happen, in your next 15 minutes of fame.
Note: Is your blockworker an entertaining raconteur like Scott Kinnamon? Nominate him or her for a blockworker of the month profile by sending details to editor@greaterparkhill.org. Interested in becoming a blockworker and delivering newspapers to your neighborhood each month? Contact newspaper manager Melissa Davis at newspaper@greaterparkhill.org.