Zaidy’s Deli & Bakery comes about as close as Denver gets to the kind of old-school delicatessen found all over New York City and Los Angeles (think Katz’s and Canter’s). So it was a fitting place dining with Randi Kleiner, the co-founder and CEO of SeriesFest, a celebration of independent episodic storytelling, or in other words, TV series. It’s the kind of festival you’d expect to find in New York or L.A. Instead, since 2015 it’s been a Mile High City staple.
“We really wanted to create a destination festival like Sundance, which was in Park City at the time,” explained Kleiner, (ironically, Sundance is moving to Boulder next year). Though she herself was based in New York and her now co-founder, Kaily Smith, was in L.A., Smith is a native Denverite and suggested they check out the Mile High City. “I had actually never even been here, but we got in touch with then-Governor Hickenlooper, and he invited us out and said, ‘I really want more film and television to be produced here, and I feel like you guys could be a good platform for that.’”
The women were introduced to the head of Denver Film, then Britta Erickson, who took them to the Sie Film Center. Erickson offered to partner with them, giving SeriesFest its first home and a base of operations.
“We spent 48 hours here, and what was so inspiring was that you could really feel that Denver had a really rich cultural aspect,” added Kleiner. “Whether it was music, theater, visual arts, film, we got really excited by what the city had to offer. And everybody was so nice here, like, ‘How can I help? What can I do? What do you need?’ We literally went to the airport after that 48 hours and said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Before the launch of SeriesFest Season 12, which runs May 6 to 10, discussed Kleiner’s work as we noshed on our lunch—a corned beef sandwich for her, the Joe’s Special of scrambled eggs with ground beef and veggies for me, plus an order of half-sours. We also found out her favorite places to eat and drink, in the town she now calls home.
What was the inspiration behind SeriesFest?
Back in 2013 and 2014, I was working at Film Lincoln Center and at the New York Film Festival, and I was meeting a lot of filmmakers who had created independent pilots. I knew what an independent feature film was, but I had never heard of an independent pilot—a fully financed and produced episode that would basically be a calling card to break into what was then a very closed studio and network system. When I would ask these filmmakers, “Well, you made this pilot, did it work? Did you get the meetings?” They’d be like, “No, and we don’t feel like it’s right for YouTube, so it’s just sitting on my shelf.”
So Kaily and I started to take meetings with network executives. We would go to NBC, ABC, HBO and ask, “How are you finding new stories, diverse creators?” And their answers were all over the board, but they would all say, “We can’t compete with Netflix,” which was really changing the game in terms of content. So we could feel there was a hunger for new and diverse content from these executives, but there was no place to find it. Coming from a film festival background, when you want to go see the next great filmmaker, you go to Sundance, you go to Cannes, you go to South by Southwest. And I thought, “Why is nobody doing this for television?”
The other aha moment for us was we were meeting with a big HBO executive, and he called Game of Thrones a 10-hour movie. And I thought that was really interesting. Typically you watch television by yourself, with your family. But production quality at that time was getting so good, Game of Thrones being a great example. We thought, how fun would it be to watch that in a theater with hundreds of other people and then have that conversation with the creatives about the making of the show?
So we really came together to be a discovery platform for new stories and to bridge independent creators with established executives. We are now a year-round 501(c)3 organization, and our festival’s grown from two to five full days.
Can we get a sneak peek of Season 12?
We’re doing the premiere of The Four Seasons Season 2, and we’ll have several of the actors and one of the writer-showrunners with us in person. . . . One really exciting local thing is we’re honoring John Sie, who is truly one of the pioneers of the cable industry. He founded Starz Entertainment Group 35 years ago. He’s turning 90 this year, and we’re super, super excited to be able to honor such a legend. . . . When people come to Colorado, I don’t think they realize that it’s actually the birthplace of cable television. So this is a great way to tell that story.
We’re doing a panel with [some of] the directors of [production company] Shondaland, who have done shows from Bridgerton to Grey’s Anatomy. We do a women’s directing mentorship program with Shondaland, where an aspiring female director actually gets to shadow on a full episode of a Shonda Rhimes show. . . . Our winner from two years ago, Gia-Rayne Harris, shadowed on Bridgerton. They subsequently hired her, and she directed two episodes from the series that’s out right now. We’re going to honor her with our Ambassador Award, and she’ll be a part of the director’s panel.
We have about 55 independent pilots in competition this year and an incredible jury of executives. What’s really cool about SeriesFest is all the industry that comes in from out of town. You can come here and see your favorite actors, producers, directors; get behind the scenes; see shows before they air; and see how they get made.
And it’s very accessible: When you go to certain film festivals, you can’t get within 100 feet of the talent. At SeriesFest, the talent is with you in the venue, running around. A great example is Rhea Seahorn, who’s the lead of Apple TV’s Pluribus. She just won the Golden Globe. Last year, she came out to receive an award, and she was having so much fun she decided to stay for the full festival, and she boarded an independent project as an executive producer. And she was just sitting in the audience, talking to everybody.
Do you ever take visiting talent out to eat or drink?
We do, all over the place. We’ve held some big dinners, like Chef Ludo [Lefebvre] hosted about 100 people at Chez Maggy, which had literally just opened. That was really fun, because it tied the elements of TV and food together: He had a television series, Rat in the Kitchen, with Natasha Leggero, and she was out as well. We did a world premiere of the series, and he created the menu, he cooked, and the food was absolutely phenomenal.
Most of our talent is based in Cherry Creek, so they go to a lot of the restaurants around there, from Le Bilboquet and Le Colonial to Toro. We’ve done stuff at the speakeasy [in The Halcyon hotel], B&GC. Like, we created passwords that were TV-related and spread them around by word of mouth, so if you heard about it and said one of those, you could go down there and get a free cookie and a free shot. Sắp sửa is also very popular because of its proximity to the Sie, and it’s great.
Why did you choose Zaidy’s today?
This is just comfort food for me. Having transplanted here from New York City, I miss great Jewish delis, so it makes me feel at home. It brings out my inner 80-year-old—and I have no problem with that, because I have been told very often that I have an old soul.
What are some other favorite restaurants and bars of yours in Denver and why?
I’m a big Uncle fan, I think that’s the best ramen in town. I like Le French, which creates traditional French classics with a West African twist, and Brasserie Brixton, it’s very intimate. I always get the mussels.
My favorite dive bar is College Inn. I go to watch football every Sunday with all the regulars, who’ve adopted me. We’ve all become friends and we laugh a lot and holler at each other a lot. Also, Charlie Brown’s for life.
What has surprised you most about Denver as an East Coaster?
From a dining perspective, the variety and the quality of the food here is great. It goes without saying that New York is culturally diverse, and there are amazing restaurants on every block. When I lived there, I ate out every night, so I was a little worried about that when I moved here. I’ve since learned to cook, so I don’t eat out every night, but I was truly surprised by Denver’s dining scene, and it’s continued to get better and better and better.
New York is such a melting pot; in Denver, you have to know how to find the culture through organizations like the Biennial of the Americas and the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, but it’s here. I love going to the theater. I love going to Red Rocks and hearing music. I went to a new gallery, Union Hall, recently and saw a cool exhibit. There’s just so much art and culture here.
