State film office gets new director

Departing leader, 70, out after less than year

Growing up in Littleton, Colo., Amber Dodson was captivated by films that tackled political, social and cultural issues and themes, such as 1993’s Philadelphia, featuring Tom Hanks as a gay lawyer fighting homophobia and discrimination.

“Movies like that opened up my world and my mind,” the 42-year-old Albuquerque resident said. “I fell in love with the power of film.”

The New Mexico Economic Development Department announced Tuesday it had tapped Dodson to lead the New Mexico Film Office, effective March 9.

“I’m excited to be stepping into this role at this point in time ... when there’s so much momentum in the film industry here,” she said Tuesday. “I’m eager to continue building on that momentum.”

She will replace Todd Christensen, who served in the role for less than a year before giving two weeks’ notice earlier this month.

Christensen said he based his decision on personal, not political or professional, reasons.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” he said. “I’m 70. I made a choice for my personal well-being.”

Dodson, who will earn more than $107,000 a year in the job, recently served as the film office liaison for Albuquerque for nearly a year. Before that, she worked in a range of roles in the film and media world for about two decades.

Though she majored in history at Colorado College in Colorado

Springs, Colo., she said she took a number of film-related courses to learn about the business.

Her first job after college was as a writer and producer of a live television show for Colorado’s Dish Network that was “about the tech arm of the company and new production coming out. So I cut my teeth doing really boring content, but it taught me how to multitask, lead a team and build confidence.”

Dodson said that while she has ideas for expanding New Mexico’s film and media business, “I want to be in place and learn more before I get absolutely set on a plan.”

Christensen took the job of film office director in May. He had worked in the film industry, primarily as a location scout, while living in New Mexico for about 13 years. Before that, he did similar work in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

He said employee morale was in “shambles” when he took over the film office last year. Soon, he was down three employees. “It had some people who were not happy about working there,” he said. “I tried to create an environment where people enjoyed coming to work.”

He said the office is now up to six workers, not including the director. The office has put in a request to hire two more employees to handle the state’s growing film industry.

“I can’t believe how good it is looking” for the future, he said. “It’s tough to keep track of the amount of calls I am getting and the number of film productions that want to come here.”

He said that while film crew strength and quality are solid, the state could use more sound stages.

Both of Santa Fe’s film facilities — Santa Fe Studios and Garson Studios on the campus of the former Santa Fe University of Art and Design — are in use for

productions, he said.

Christensen said he plans to take time off to travel, spend time with his 90-year-old mother in South Dakota and then develop a plan to draw unemployed and young Native Americans into the film industry.

“I’d like to go talk to the students on the pueblos, encourage the [pueblo] governors to bring together a group of people who are unemployed or interested in the business, and tell them about the opportunities in the film business,” he said.

“I don’t know how that will turn out, but I feel some attention has to be paid to that idea.”

Though filmmakers have been making movies in New Mexico since the early days of silent cinema, the local industry really began growing in the 1990s after former Gov. Gary Johnson signed a film incentive program into law offering financial amenities to movie companies.

Over the years, the state has expanded those incentives. Eligible film companies now can receive a 25 percent rebate on

expenses, while television shows that stay in the state for the long run — like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul — can earn up to 30 percent in rebates.

Among the films that recently wrapped or are about to wrap in the state are The Au Pair, Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar and News of the World. The Western The Harder They Fall is still filming in the state.

Dodson, who said she will continue to live in Albuquerque while working out of the Santa Fe film office, said she wants to make New Mexico the No. 1 place to film movies.

“We have this great ecosystem in place to support the film and TV industry now,” she said. “We have a great crew base, production support, and services and sound stages. We have incentives and diverse locations, but we still have to find a way to scale a lot of that so we can stay on top of our game.

“We’re going to do it. There’s going to be some growing pains along the way, but we’re going to do it.”