Tonight on a large screen at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, more than 4,000 people will get an opportunity to see how University of Pittsburgh professor Jen Saffron and seven of her students answered the question: "What is democracy?"

Their response, a three-minute film called "Democracy: A Steady, Loving Confrontation," is one of 10 that will be screened during the Cinemocracy Film Festival held as part of this week's Democratic National Convention.

The festival is being sponsored by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, the Denver Film Society and the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee.

A blue-ribbon panel of industry professional judges will select one of the 10 films for entry into the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival (Nov. 13-23). It will also be eligible for the Starz People's Choice Award for Best Short, which carries a $2,500 prize.

Ms. Saffron's film is a shortened version of an oral history project, which entailed her, her students and a social worker traveling to Georgia and Alabama to interview former civil rights activists.

"I think there's real power in people reflecting upon a very real moment in history and seeing what that has to do with where we are now," said Ms. Saffron, an instructor in Pitt's Film Studies program, who will introduce her film tonight at the festival.

Also attending will be one of her Pitt students, Peter Kusnic.

Among those interviewed by the Pitt contingent during 16 days in the heart of the South were original Freedom Riders, church leaders, pastors, business owners, judges, teachers, nurses and organizers of the historic Selma-to-Montgomery march.

Lynda Lowery, who was a teenager during that time, provided the film's title when she described how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. defined nonviolence. "He told us that nonviolence was a steady, loving confrontation," Ms. Lowery says in the film. "Nothing more and nothing less."

The Rev. Deryck Tines created an arrangement of the civil rights anthem, "We Shall Overcome," that is part of the soundtrack for "Democracy: A Steady Loving Confrontation." Amizade, a nonprofit humanitarian service housed at West Virginia University, sponsored the trip south by Ms. Saffron and her students (six from Pitt and one from American University), who collaborated with the Rosa Parks Museum and Library, the National Voting Rights Institute and Museum and the First Baptist Church of Selma, all of which identified people to be interviewed for the project.

The resulting footage will be edited and subsequently housed in the archives of these institutions, Ms. Saffron said.

In addition to being shown at the film festival at Red Rocks, "Democracy: A Steady, Loving Confrontation" is available for viewing at www.cinemocracy.org/video/democracy-steady-loving-confrontation.