Support your local indie filmmaker

The New Mexico State Film Office and its supporters, including working folks in the industry, may breathe a sigh of relief over the recent state-funded study, conducted by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, that says that the film business is paying incredible financial dividends for New Mexico. Those pluses include the creation of 2,200 jobs and $250 million in spending directly following from film production in the state in 2007,
as well as roughly $1.50 in net tax revenue for every dollar spent. That's good news, though it's at odds with a Legislative Finance Committee-sponsored study created by New Mexico State University's economic-development branch, Arrowhead Center. That report, which came out late last year, said that the state is netting less than 15 cents on the dollar. (I compared the two studies in the Friday, Jan. 30, edition of The New Mexican. You can find the article at santafenewmexican.com.)

Despite the fact that the state Legislature is looking for ways to cut the budget to make up for a big deficit — including axing some $17 million for film and media production facilities and training — can we consider whether some of that profit can be used to help New Mexico filmmakers? That's an idea Jonathan Wacks, director of the Moving Image Arts department at the College of Santa Fe, has been pitching for years: $10 million for 10 movies to be made by New Mexican filmmakers.

Wacks, Emmy-winning screenwriter Kirk Ellis, and several other interested parties, including independent producer Karen Koch, are among those who want to convince the Legislature to ante up a one-time fund — somewhere between $10 and $25 million, it appears — to get New Mexico filmmakers making movies. "It's the missing piece of our film program," said Ellis, who has been on the governor's advisory film council for about three years. "We have nurtured a significant amount of film professionals in every department. Now we have to sustain the longevity of the industry by setting up a program where above-the-line talent can continue to make personal films."

Wacks and Ellis envision a setup in which a project would get additional points for each New Mexican in key above-the-line positions such as producer, director, writer, actor, and so on. The fact that financially troubled CSF just canceled this coming year's proposed New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive, a roughly seven-month long program designed to teach New Mexicans how to produce, direct, write, and edit films, may make that task more difficult. And given the current economic climate of the state, no one is proposing such a plan to the Legislature this year.

So how can the state help homegrown filmmakers who do not qualify for the two most attractive incentives? The zero-percent loan program, for instance, only applies to films with at least a $2 million budget that have a guarantor for the loan and a distributor. And that makes sense, because the state shouldn't be funding every would-be Fellini's movie without protecting our tax dollars. The 25-percent tax rebate for qualifying projects is more likely to help producers of low-budget films.

Koch, who co-founded Santa Fe-based Luminaria Films with writer/producer Bill Conway about four years ago, took advantage of the rebate to shoot the drama Spoken Word, which wrapped here last year under budget (which was about $4 million). Koch is a proponent of supporting New Mexico film artists. "In the case of filmmakers, there's a tremendous amount of local talent that shouldn't be overlooked," she said. "But it does feel like New Mexico has a way of always going to the outside instead of mining what's already here."

Yet the state hasn't been too cooperative when it comes to filing the paperwork. "We're finding that the questioning of our expenses seems extreme, based on abuses from Hollywood," Koch said. "I don't think we've ever taken a point of view that because we're local we should get special treatment, but we want equal treatment." To add to her woes, the person reviewing her rebate application seemed unfamiliar with film-related terminology like "SAG." "Which seems a bit crazy, if that's what you're charged with doing, to not know what the Screen Actors Guild is." In addition, "The taxes that a local corporation pays are higher in New Mexico than what an outside company pays, which just seems wrong." If nothing else, you'd think the state would bend over backward to help New Mexico filmmakers who qualify for the incentives. Still, Koch stressed that she garnered great support from IATSE 480, the local film technicians' union.

That wasn't the case with Justin Evans, who wrote, produced, and directed the recent
Santa Fe Film Festival entry and award winner A Lonely Place for Dying. In an online article titled "Negotiating With IATSE, the Hard Way," Evans maintains that Jon Hendry, IATSE 480's business agent, did everything he could to stop Evans from making his low-budget action drama, even threatening to shut the film down. (Google the title of Evans' article for full details.) Incidentally, I've heard a similar story from at least one other local film producer who wouldn't go on the record, but when I asked Hendry about it, he said it wasn't true and noted that he likes to have "negotiations" with low-budget producers to try to get them union-qualified.

Union troubles aside, Evans isn't a fan of state-financed filmmaking, which, he said, could be considered a form of artistic socialism. "I don't want to see New Mexico getting into the business of financing every single filmmaker's artistic project," he said. "If that means I don't get money, so be it, because it would be bad for the economy in the long term. I don't want free money; I want tax incentives. I'd like to see something like Section 181 of the tax code, stating any money you put into a movie production is tax-deductible."

And, he stressed, New Mexico filmmakers have to remember they are involved in a business. "We should be required by law to meet certain accounting standards. We should be required to work with an accredited payroll company ... and to draft a business plan. If we put those things in place, we have transitioned from being amateur filmmakers — which is what most people mean when they say independent — to being entrepreneurial filmmakers."

Luca Ceccarelli agrees on that point. Ceccarelli is a New Mexico-based producer, editor, and technician and the owner of HDNM Entertainment, which has produced the high-voltage exploitation picture Naked Fear and co-produced the Italian Western miniseries Doc West. The people, not the politicians, should drive the industry, he stressed.

"Think about Seattle in the '90s. What would have made Seattle the independent alternative rock capital of the world? I don't think a movement like that is given birth because the state made incentives or helped create infrastructure for sound-recording studios or taught people how to make primary chords. It came from the people; the people wanted it. The big question is, do we want a film industry here? Does New Mexico like this industry?"

But Ceccarelli feels the current program, aimed primarily at big-budget out-of-state productions, can only help the state's film-makers. "If New Mexico does like this industry, we need to be very, very careful and not do anything that would affect the core business at this juncture, because the entire industry will fall flat on its face."

In the interim, all it may take is for one New Mexico filmmaker to gain support from the state and create a sleeper hit. "We need a New Mexican jewel — our Slumdog Millionaire or El Mariachi or Blair Witch Project, that one little film that pops it to the next level," Ceccarelli said. And though he's hesitant about supporting a call for state-financed movie making, he acknowledged that such a cinematic jewel could emerge from the plan Wacks and Ellis are proposing.