New Mexico Girls Make Movies (NMGMM) serves young women throughout New Mexico with our free education, filmmaking, and job training programs. Here is a sample of some of our recent and ongoing projects.
From left, Ruochen Bo, Sara Casaus, Lily Wickstrom, and Kiki Gonglewski. Photo by Linda Carfagno.
SCREENWRITING & GRANT COMPETITIONS
Since its founding in 2016, NMGMM has offered two statewide screenwriting competitions. In our inaugural year, New Mexico girls and young women submitted their original screenplays, short stories, and poems for the chance to win a $1,000 production budget as well as professional film crew to turn their story into a short film. The top five finalists received an invitation to the Shooting Stars Gala at the Governor’s Mansion on April 21, 2017, where the winning screenplay, Bottled Up by NMGMM Sara Casaus, was performed as a staged reading. We had over 65 entries from young women, age 12–25, from all across New Mexico, including Albuquerque, Corrales, Deming, Las Cruces, Las Vegas, Los Lunas, Lovington, Portales, Rio Rancho, Roswell, Santa Fe, and Taos.
The winners of the 2017 New Mexico Girls Make Movies grant competition are:
Winner:
Bottled Up (screenplay) by Sara Casaus
Finalists:
Timeless (screenplay) by Ruochen Bo
Moments Out of Time (screenplay) by Kiki Gonglewski
A Good Day for Stew (screenplay) by Lily Wickstrom
Theresa H. Johnson’s Purloin Palooza (short story) by Loulee Wilson
Honorable Mentions:
Tierra Madre (short story) by Natalie Flores Wilson and Nemali Hypolite
C 8 H 10 N 4 O 2 = Coffee? (short story) by Victoria Gonzales
A Place Where Nobody Dies (short story) by Kyree Mackey
You Can Never Leave (short story) by Morgan Wilder
The One (short story) by Yarely Rosas
Congratulations Sara, Ruochen, Kiki, Lily, Loulee, Natalie, Nemali, Victoria, Kyree, Morgan, and Yarely! A big congratulations to all the girls and young women who entered the 2017 New Mexico Girls Make Movies grant competition. Your stories inspiring and we are so glad that you applied.
2019 Screenwriting Competition Winner and Finalists. From top left, RaSandra Daniels, Austin Tackman, Kiki Gonglewski, Maria Sokolova, and Nalu Grushkus. From bottom left, Sarah Mease, Samantha Jeffries, and Sophie Wickert. Not pictured: Tanner Medrano. Photo by Linda Carfagno.
For our 2019 Competition, young women submitted their writing for the chance to win one-on one mentoring with professional writers and film industry professionals as well as a staged reading of their screenplay at the 2019 NMGMM Awards Ceremony at George RR Martin’s Jean Cocteau Cinema Event.
The Winners of the 2019 Competition are:
Winner:
Holy Word by Sarah Mease
1st Runner-Up:
Inner Thoughts by Samantha Jeffries and Austin Tackman (team entry)
2nd Runner-up:
Juniper Hammer, Rock Slayer by Sophie Wickert
Finalists (in alphabetical order):
Outside the Elements by RaSandra Daniels
Elevator Pitch by Kiki Gonglewski
Dog Show by Nalu Grushkus
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):
Breakthrough by Tanner Medrano
What a Man Wants by Maria Sokolova
Congratulations Sarah, Samantha, Austin, Sophie, RaSandra, Kiki, Nalu, Tanner, and Maria and to all of the young women who entered the 2019 Competition!
DP Ruochen Bo, Writer/Director Sara Casaus, DP Mentor Diana de Aguinaga, and 1st AC Mentor Jenelle Stafford on the set of Bottled Up.
PRODUCTION OF the FILM BOTTLED UP
For our 2017 season, NMGMM produced the short film Bottled Up, written and directed by Screenwriting Grant winner, Sara Casaus. All of our young finalists joined the production crew and received one-on-one mentoring with female professionals in the industry. From screenwriting to costuming to editing, our NMGMM Mentees learned the filmmaking process in their area of interest and had fun along the way. Bottled Up had its premiere at the 2018 Santa Fe Film Festival where our Mentees received all-festival passes and participated in our NMGMM Panel: Empowering Women in the New Mexico Film Industry. Bottled Up made New Mexico history as its first film with an all-female crew. Click here for our crew list. Click here for IMDB page.
NMGMM Mentees and Actors in the Santa Fe Workshop, March 2018.
WORKSHOPS
For our 2018-2019 Season, New Mexico Girls Make Movies offered free Screenwriting and Directing workshops for girls and young women throughout the state including Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos. In these one-day workshops, the NMGMM Workshop Mentees work on their short screenplays and cast professional actors to stage their scenes.
In addition, NMGMM offers a free Production Assistant Training Program (PATP) to provide real-world education to young women ready to enter the professional film industry. The culmination of this program will include a placement on a set where the Mentees can put their new skills to use and gain invaluable connections in the greater film community.
NMGMM Panel at the 2018 Santa Fe Film Festival
PANEL DISCUSSIONS & SCREENINGS
NMGMM opens its doors to the greater community with events such as Panel Discussions and Screenings throughout the year. At the Santa Fe Film Festival in January 2018, we hosted a panel discussion entitled "New Mexico Girls Make Movies: Empowering Women in the New Mexico Film Industry.”
Featuring Mentors, Mentees, and Judges from our program, the panel focused on women starting out in the film industry or looking to move to next level. From networking and competitions to education and hands-on training, the panel began a dialogue about what women can do to take advantage of all that the New Mexico film industry has to offer to create their own opportunities and help each other succeed.
The panel featured a screening of the New Mexico Girls Make Movies first short film, BOTTLED UP, written and directed by 2017 Winner Sara Casaus and filmed in Santa Fe by an all-female crew as well as a Behind-the-Scenes filmed and edited by NMGMM Producer, Barb Odell.
The NMGMM Panel was followed by a reception where attendees and NMGMM partipants had the opportunity to continue the conversation and network.