COVID demands the occasional distraction, for the sake of our sanity. I thought Virgin Galactic’s touristee launch into space from New Mexico’s Spaceport America would be a welcome diversion, but the first attempt was an aborted disappointment, not the milestone we’d hoped it to be.
So instead, let’s turn to New Mexico filmmaking for our entertainment. Like the space industry, it has a long and storied history in New Mexico.
Filmmaking here goes back to the silent picture shows. The original Las Vegas in particular was a hub for silent filmmaking in the early 1900s. Star Tom Mix took up residence in Las Vegas, where they made a series of silent western movies in and around this northern New Mexico city.
Then came the “talkies” and Hollywood stole the show, leaving New Mexico as more of an on-location destination for moviemakers. Wikipedia lists around 250 films made in this state — not counting the silent pictures in the days of old.
I’ll name-drop a few of the contemporary movies filmed in New Mexico, starting with one of our most famous novels — “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya — which was finally turned into a movie here in 2013.
Before that, however, there were classics made in full or in part here, such as “The Grapes of Wrath” in the 1940s (they filmed the Joad family crossing the Pecos River in Santa Rosa), and the 1960s counter-culture classic, “Easy Rider.”
Then there are the “modern” westerns, including: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), “The Hi-Lo Country” (1998) and the remake of “True Grit” in 2010. These and more kept the western genre alive in New Mexico filmmaking.
So what’s going on now? According to the New Mexico Film Office, recent in-state productions include: “Canyon Del Muerto,” being filmed in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Farmington and Gallup; while three other films — “Captive,” “The Commando” and “Slayers” — have been busy filming in and around Albuquerque over the past couple months.
Filmmaking in New Mexico got a big boost in the early 2000s when then-Gov. Bill Richardson, with the state Legislature’s cooperation, started offering filmmakers a 25% rebate on what they spend in New Mexico.
Such a “giveaway” to deep pocketed moviemakers wasn’t without its controversy, and when Susana Martinez ran for governor in 2010, she said she’d cut the rebate. But once she was in office and saw just how lucrative the moviemaking business is, she thought better of it — and actually sweetened the pot by signing into law a 30% rebate passed by lawmakers in 2013.
New Mexico now offers film rebates of between 25% and 35% for in-state film production costs. And in 2019, under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, the state increased its incentives in hopes of growing the film and television industry in New Mexico even more.
These are high-dollar incentives for an industry that is rolling in money already. I hope our lawmakers haven’t been star-struck by all this activity. They don’t call it show business for nothing, you know.
Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at: