Julian Rubinstein

Julian Rubinstein is an award-winning journalist, author and documentary filmmaker. His recent documentary feature, THE HOLLY, goes deep inside a gentrifying community in northeast Denver, where a shooting case involving an activist becomes a window into urban development and the city’s gang activity. It was executive produced by Academy Award-winner Adam McKay and distributed by Gravitas Ventures. It premiered theatrically in March 2023 and is currently streaming on Prime, Hulu, Starz and iTunes. It is the winner of six awards, including the 2024 Heartland Emmy for Best Documentary, the 2023 IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors) Award for Best Documentary, and the 2024 UFVA (University Film and Video Association) Award for Best Feature Documentary.

He began filming while reporting his nonfiction book, The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood (FSG). The book was a New York Times “Editors’ Choice” and the winner of the 2022 Colorado Book Award for General Nonfiction and the 2022 High Plains Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. His previous book, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, was also a New York Times “Editors’ Choice” and a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book.

His longform journalism has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Salon, Travel + Leisure and others. It has won numerous awards and been collected in Best American Essays, Best American Sports Writing and Best American Crime Writing. Before coming to Western, he taught longform journalism and documentary storytelling at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Colorado College and University of Denver.

Courses Taught

• Introduction to Film
• Introduction to Media Production
• Media Production: Narrative
• Multi-format Journalism
• Advanced Documentary Production

Publications

• The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021
• Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts; published by Little, Brown and Co., 2004