FROM DAVID CALDWELL AND RON EDGERTON

CO-PRESIDENTS OF GWFF BOARD OF DIRECTORS

We are dedicating the 2023 Go West Film Festival to the memory of Monica Kahn and Dr. Robert Kahn, two longtime members of our board of directors. After a road accident claimed their lives on February 3, we knew that Go West would not be the same. Monica’s and Bob’s enthusiasm and ideas for hospitality, marketing, event organization, programming and fundraising are sorely missed, as is their cheerful companionship.

As we remember these two friends, we appreciate how they nudged us forward, much in the spirit of western pioneers, encouraging us to expand the horizons of the western film genre. One might stereotypically expect a couple of senior citizens to champion classical films from the heyday of westerns, the movies and serials they enjoyed as young people. Yet Bob and Monica often spoke up in favor of films that challenge conventional categories. They turned our attention to movies in which the West is portrayed as a beacon for wanderers, adventurers and refugees from all continents and from all generations. While recognizing that violence is endemic to this Hollywood genre, they gently goaded us toward stories about the special peace that dawns from western values such as respect and fair play. Yes, the perilous storm clouds that sweep over the West can mire us in mud, bury us in snow, and choke us with dust, but the big sky shared by immigrants and indigenous westerners is also our haven. Together we still look confidently to colorful sunsets and magnificent mountains as we sing, dance, tell stories, play music, and make movies. Bob and Monica understood the American West as that rare place where the destination and the journey have equal merit.

At a book signing for his memoir Roentgen and Me (2022), Bob Kahn spoke of his and Monica’s own westward migration. Exiled as children from fascist Germany, they made separate ways to the eastern US. Almost as if heeding Horace Greeley’s injunction to “go west,” their progress toward the evening horizon led them to meet in Denver, where they married. Bob explained a sense of well-being among the freedoms and open spaces of the West, a sanctuary shaped by the strictures and injustice they endured in order to get here. A career in radiology allowed Bob to look beneath the surface of the skin, a skill that transferred nicely to viewing films and discovering internal messages that we might otherwise overlook. Sometimes the Kahns’ x-ray analysis helped propel a seemingly dubious movie into the festival program. At other times their skepticism was surgically incisive. 

So long, Monica and Bob! Our trail westward will be harder without you. Your spirits will help keep us out of the ruts.