The New Mexico Film Office To Commemorate 120 Years Of Film In New Mexico

SANTA FE ? New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis announced that the state is celebrating the 120th year of filming in New Mexico this month. This milestone in New Mexico film history will be commemorated at events throughout 2017-18.

"For 120 years, New Mexico has been at the heart of the film industry," Maniatis said. "We are continuing to build on that strong tradition by attracting new productions to New Mexico and creating the film industry's greatest economic impact in New Mexico history, three years in a row."

New Mexico is consistently ranked in the top five places to shoot a film or television project in the United States, with the film industry contributing more than $500,000,000 of direct spending into the state's economy last year.

New Mexico film history predates New Mexico's establishment as a state. Shot in 1898, one of the first films made on the newly developed Edison Camera: "Indian Day School" was a 50 second depiction of children exiting a schoolhouse at Isleta Pueblo.

This film was the start a long history of filmmaking in New Mexico.

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