"The Great Divide" explores Colorado's place in the history of violence

A documentary that traces America's history of violence makes Colorado the backdrop.

What to know: "The Great Divide," which is showing Tuesday and Wednesday at the Denver Film Festival, highlights the state's dark history of mass shootings and connects it to the Sand Creek Massacre and other historical events.

• The political battle at the Colorado statehouse over a red flag law in 2019 is a throughline of the 90-minute documentary with the filmmakers embedded in opposing camps for the debate.
• "We knew [Colorado] was a microcosm of the country as a whole," producer Ilan Arboleda tells John, as well as "ground zero for mass shootings in America."

Zoom in: Arboleda and director Tom Donahue, veterans of social impact films, say their newest venture is meant to be a call to action for laws like the one in Colorado even as it acknowledges the policy is "a Band-Aid."

• The broader message is deeper — based on the root causes and history of our nation's violent past, they say.

The bottom line: "It's not just about [the need for] healing," Donahue adds. "If you're ignorant of your history, you're condemned to repeat it."