New Mexico Film Foundation "Calling All Girls" to Make Movies with $1,000 Grant Awards
It was our pleasure to interview Dirk Norris, executive director of the New Mexico Film Foundation. (https://youtu.be/gYC8LUqr6t4) You must see this 15-minute interview to hear the latest. Dirk was formerly with the New Mexico State Film Office and has been devoted to promoting the film industry in New Mexico for many years. He mentioned two new programs for 2017 that the New Mexico Film Foundation is sponsoring. One is the Scholastic Screenwriting Competition, (http://talewriters.or/scrip-contests/) and the other is NEW MEXICO GIRLS MAKE MOVIES. If you are a girl, age 13-23, and have a story, the foundation is offering grants to make short films. Then all participants will be invited to a New Mexico gala at the Governor's Mansion in April, where winning stories will be performed as staged readings. Learn every aspect of film-making, and get a grant to do so.
"Professionals will help you every step of the way," Dirk said. Incentives that the State of New Mexico gives to movie makers bring in more jobs and more money to the state than almost any other industry, he said. Politicians who complain about budget deficits need to realize that film making in New Mexico brings not only movie jobs, but fills our hotels, restaurants, creates investment in locations and new construction, and stimulates any area where there is filming. For instant and quick stimulus, we need to continue to attract movie and film productions to this state.
Ben Boothe asked about future film projects, and Victor Waumett said, "People fly here from all over the nation to attend screen writing and movie making symposiums." There are about a dozen movies being produced. They include: "Trials and Tribulations of Being a Real Estate Agent," a series being filmed in Santa Fe. Mack Page is doing a series on the martial arts in Santa Fe called "Enter the DoJo." In the recently finished film, "Yoshee," a child cares for endangered parrots. Albuquerque is filming "Leslie." Another, called "Thank You Five," is about people in theater and is in progress.