Native American TV Network:

In 1999, aboriginal/indigenous people celebrated the arrival of the first ever Native-only network - in Canada, of course. Aboriginal Network Canada is a 24-hour-a-day network with news, shows, films and cartoons by and about Native people. As one can imagine, the ANC has spawned a whole industry in "First Nations" film production in Canada - making one wonder if it might a success that could be duplicated in the United States.

Enter Native America Television, a non-profit multimedia and news training organization located in Washington, D.C. At the moment, natv.org exists as but a website, but there is a movement afoot to seek government funding in a manner similar to PBS to bring this network to the air. Seems to me like a project that would be helpful not just for Native peoples, but also for the economies in which tribes reside...

Budgetary Woes

Every creative person (particularly writers) probably dream of making movies, and that desire has expanded exponentially since New Mexico became the hottest location in the U.S. for film-making, (thanks to Big Big's generous tax incentives.)

So it should come as no surprise that when Our Governor made an announcement for a "Film-Maker's Grant" of up to $20K to "develop" (like, maybe, *write*?) new shorts, features, or documentaries, damn near every writer I know suddenly got screen-writing fever. (No one likes to write on spec, but $20K? More salivating than the lottery, methinks.)

The problem lies in the application, however, which requires writers or other would-be film-makers to submit some kind of formal budget for their proposed project. This certainly separates the wheat from the chaff - or at least the wannabe film-makers (like me, for example) from pros who actually know the ins and outs of making movies.

Maybe next time around, (gentle chiding) perhaps the Film Office could hold a couple of seminars for us folk outside-the-fence on how to spec budgets for such projects. After all, we already know they want to create incentives for a home-grown film industry. The bait is there, the desire is definitely here, (yup, I wrote one) but without the tools to get through the hoops, something tells me that only the existing crop of talent will know how to present their projects in a budgetary-appropriate way.

By the way, the deadline for the application is *tomorrow*, October 6th. If you see me out and about today, chances are good I'll be winging the figures in a cafe near you, hoping that no one at NM Film will notice I have No Idea how to actually make a movie.

ps: I would provide a link to details about the grant, but nmfilm.com has had some server problems lately. I had to go to the Film Office to pick up my application. Their link is on Montezuma Street in Santa Fe, in the offices above the former Jean Cocteau Cinema.