Hollywood on the Rio Grande

THE WRAP WITHOUT BOW KNOTS

- Introduction
- Hooked Forever
- Innocent in the Velvet Jungle
- The Commission of Doubt or
  What the Hell do we do Next
- Stinky Flies in the Gourmet Soup
- One for the Money, Two for the Show
- The Wrap Without Bow Knots In a recent interview I had with ex-Gov. Cargo, he said that a few years back, with the help of others from the film office, they had figured that the state had benefited by more than one-and-a-half billion dollars from America's first State Film Commission started 30 years ago. He said he had just read in the New York Times where Mayor Giuliani was throwing enormous resources into luring even more films to New York City. He wonders at the hesitation of those in power spending fortunes on advertising and courting big business to the state when proportionately the film industry tops them all by far.

I might add that all told, movies are cleaner, leaving hardly a trace behind after the wrap. They leave only the money and career advancements here and give enormous free advertising around the world. They also give excitement and fun for decades, some probably as long as there is an operating world. They do not take up huge parts of our precious, rapidly disappearing landscape nor use up and pollute our aquifers.

We were first. We were right. The proof is in the rest of America copying our methods of luring filmmakers. New Mexico is a filmmaker's dream place. With just a little reasoning, our statewide landscape as majestically varied as our people will keep the cameras rolling across New Mexico from now on.

ACTION! PRINT!