Earlier this week, the curtains closed at the 34th annual Starz Denver Film Festival, all 282 films of it. And while our state isn't the friendliest for filmmakers, more than a dozen locally produced flicks screened at this year's festival. The highlights:

Skiing, by definition, is a risky sport. Rick Finkelstein learned that firsthand in 2004 after an accident on Aspen Mountain left him paralyzed and fighting for his life. Six years later, he returned to the mountain that changed his life. His experience is chronicled in The Movement: One Man Joins an Uprising, which tells the story of a handful of disabled athletes. Watch it: If you missed it at film fest, catch the movie at the Boulder Theater on December 7.

The story of Rocky Flats nuclear workers suffering (and dying) from years of radiation exposure is one that's been told, but is worth hearing again. In Rocky Flats: Legacy, director Scott Bison—a CU-Boulder graduate who made the documentary short for his senior project—follows a group of former Rocky Flats workers as they fight for their lives and for much-needed compensation from the government. Watch it: The full documentary is available on Vimeo.

Still takes viewers on a journey through Clyfford Still's life through interviews with art and social historians, contemporary artists, and former students. A leader in the Abstract Expressionist movement (one of his paintings is pictured above), Still was a stubborn perfectionist. His legacy lives on through the Clyfford Still Museum, opening in Denver on Friday. Bonus: Read our story on the painter's life and works. 

—Image: PH 401, 1957, Clyfford Still Museum Collection. Photo: Harholdt