Alec Baldwin takes on an ‘important’ film festival role

Alec Baldwin will be appearing as a “special guest programmer” at the Boulder International Film Festival in Colorado, set to take place next month. 

Baldwin’s role at the festival will include him showing three of his favorite films and participating in question and answer sessions after each screening. Kathy Beeck, director of the festival, said they are “honored” to have Baldwin take on the “important role.” 

The announcement has received plenty of backlash, however, with most critics citing the accidental shooting and killing of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Baldwin last year on a New Mexico movie set. Baldwin was a producer and performer on the film.

The Boulder International Film Festival eventually limited who can reply to their Baldwin announcement on Twitter amid the heavy criticism.

“Next tweet should say ‘sorry he’s fired,’” one commenter wrote. 

Broadcaster Mike North accused Baldwin of “gallivanting” following the tragic shooting of Hutchins. 

Since the shooting of Hutchins in New Mexico, Baldwin has claimed he is cooperating with authorities as they investigate the incident, which also left director Joel Souza injured. 

Baldwin claimed in an interview with ABC that Hutchins was helping him rehearse for a scene and he did not pull the trigger of the gun, denying responsibility for the incident. 

“Someone is responsible for what happened,” the Oscar nominated actor said. “It’s not me.” 

The three films being shown by Baldwin at the Boulder Film Festival will be Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb’, ‘The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel EllsbErg and the Pentagon Papers’, and ‘Julia’. 

Baldwin has been embroiled in a number of other controversies on top of the shooting investigation. He settled a lawsuit this week stemming from an alleged physical altercation with another man three years ago over a parking space. He is also facing a defamation lawsuit from relatives of a fallen marine branded as an “insurrectionist” by Baldwin for being present in Washington, DC at the protest that eventually morphed into the Capitol riot.