Film industry figures say commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia helps make Santa Fe great place to film

Feb. 11—When a national magazine ranked Santa Fe the nation's No. 1 small city in its listing of "Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker," a part of the blurb was devoted to Jennifer LaBar-Tapia.

She's not an actor. But those who've worked with her say LaBar-Tapia is a hell of an ambassador — a compliment echoed by MovieMaker magazine editor-in-chief Tim Molloy.

In his "Best Places" piece, he wrote: "Tireless film commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia seems to know every industry person in town on a first-name basis — she's part sheriff, part cheer captain, and all rock star, able to roll with big requests and surprises at a moment's notice."

Molloy would know. As LaBar-Tapia recalls, she'd planned to have breakfast at The Pantry Rio with Molloy in July.

Instead, her phone rang in June.

"He showed up a month early," recalled LaBar-Tapia, film commissioner and executive director at the Santa Fe Film Office.

She dropped everything, joined Molloy for breakfast, and got to texting and calling local movie people to set up impromptu and spontaneous visits for the visiting editor.

Her hustle paid off: Molloy's first visit to Santa Fe — smoothed by LeBar-Tapia's enthusiasm — solidified the City Different's first top ranking.

Not every day at the office gets memorialized in a national magazine. But then, MovieMaker isn't the only one so effusive about LaBar-Tapia's abilities.

"Jennifer goes way above and beyond compared to other film office commissioners," Josh Bachove, producer of the new Showtime TV series The Curse, wrote in an email. "She takes great pride in making Santa Fe a great place to film, and that is very evident in her efforts. She knows everyone in town and is always willing to make an introduction. She is also an incredible reference for crew and locations and restaurants and accommodations. She's a one-stop shop as a local filming resource and that goes a hugely long way."

Bachove shot The Curse, starring Emma Stone, from June to September in Santa Fe and Española.

"When I first came to Santa Fe to scout, Jennifer drove me around town for two days, introducing me to vendors and locations and crew members," said Bachove, president of Pocket 7 Films. "It was incredibly helpful and a great way to start the production. When we had any local issues with the city for permitting or businesses for locations, Jennifer was there to assist with communication and facilitation."

Affiliated with Santa Fe Film Office since its inception by Santa Fe County and the city of Santa Fe in 2016, LaBar-Tapia has seen the area's film scene expand to four studios: Santa Fe Studios, Garson Studios, Camel Rock Studios and the apparently temporary Santa Fe Midtown Studios. The Santa Fe region also has six Western movie ranches.

"With our tremendous film training program [at Santa Fe Community College], with the support of the community, and all of our filmmakers and film facilities, we are at the table with Georgia and British Columbia now," LaBar-Tapia said of Santa Fe's place in the movie business beyond Los Angeles and New York.

The Santa Fe region has seen 322 film projects since July 2016, including commercials, photo shoots and documentaries. At least 93 feature films, 29 series or limited series and 59 episodic shows, such as Antiques Roadshow, have spent a few days here, she said.

Native Santa Fean Ashley Valdez, a location manager, has collaborated with LaBar-Tapia on projects ranging from Waco to Roswell, New Mexico. LaBar-Tapia's energy, she said, has made a difference in what is often an intricate and complex process.

"Jen is amazing to work with; she always goes the extra mile to help with film productions as much as she can," Valdez wrote in an email. "She's helped me find production offices to working with neighborhoods. She makes herself available all the time. If I'm calling her in the day or after hours at night she always there."

The state Film Office reports direct spending of $855 million by the film industry in fiscal year 2022, more than double the amount in 2016. LaBar-Tapia said the Santa Fe film industry accounts for $300 million in direct spending in the past fiscal year and $1.2 billion since the Santa Fe Film Office was established in 2016.

"The number that gets tossed around is 3,000 people [in Santa Fe] are in the film industry in one way or another," LaBar-Tapia said. "In 2016, we had probably half of that. We have Oscar winners, Emmy winners. Some A-listers live here. Independent film workers live here. We do have crew living here."

Milton Riess has watched LaBar-Tapia's entire tenure at the film office during his 11 years as chair of the Film and Digital Arts Department at Santa Fe Community College. He had "burned out" in the film industry in Los Angeles as an "unacclaimed actor" and technical director.

"I would rate her one of the top film managers in the country," Riess said of LaBar-Tapia. "She understands everything about the film industry. She knows what they need. She can look at a scenario and in mere seconds analyze it and give them the solutions to problems they don't even know are problems."

LaBar-Tapia, 52, did not have high school dreams in Seal Beach, Calif., about working in the movie industry, but her first job was working in the characters and parade department at Disneyland.

She went on to work as a "floater" for Jenny Craig International in San Diego, filling in for vacant positions in the company's offices. Its franchise in Albuquerque was booming in the early 1990s, and the company sent LaBar-Tapia to a new outpost in Santa Fe in 1993 as a counselor and eventually manager.

She has stayed in Santa Fe ever since.

"I fell in love with the people, the culture, the air," she said. "You can do so many outdoor activities."

She switched to the Inn of the Loretto in the mid-1990s and then the Eldorado Hotel & Spa.

She did not know it at the time or even for the next 20 years, but all her previous jobs prepared her to be a film commissioner.

She co-launched the county's constituent services office in the early 2000s, which got LaBar-Tapia out into the community.

"You make all these contacts," she said. "It's those contacts that I lean on heavily."

She then became operations manager for the County Manager's Office, where she became fluent in procurement and contracts, which became a helpful trait when hooking up filmmakers with local vendors.

In 2016, Santa Fe County brought in Eric Witt to launch a Santa Fe Film Office.

"'Jen, this is Eric. Jen, you're going to help Eric with whatever he needs,'" LaBar-Tapia recalled then-Deputy County Manager Tony Flores saying.

The film industry had not been on her mind before she was introduced to Witt.

"I was thinking of working with the senior program, something that gets me out in the community," LaBar-Tapia said.

Witt had been deputy chief of staff for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, where he authored the state film incentive program. He then became a private sector advisor in the entertainment business.

"I was helping him behind the scenes," LaBar-Tapia said. "Having Eric to teach me all about this — you can't ask for a better mentor."

At that time, the county and city only had special event permits to use for film shoots.

"One of the first things I did was create a state-of-the-art online film permit program," she said.

Witt left the film office in 2019, and LaBar-Tapia was named interim executive director as its only employee. She officially became executive director in 2020.

Local casting agency owner Jen Schalenberg noted LaBar-Tapia's knowledge of local crew and resources as well as the government thickets.

"I believe Jen's personality and the relationships she has built, the trust she has gained with the filmmakers, has made all the difference," said Schwalenberg, president of Casting by Jen, a local casting agency. "Filmmakers need to know they'll be taken care of throughout their shoot and can easily gauge the film friendliness of a community by their interaction with a film office. Jen has been inviting and resourceful and offers the same level of service for all productions regardless of their budget."

You'd think that being at the intersection of film and Santa Fe would put LaBar-Tapia on a first-name basis with Hollywood's brightest lights, but she said hanging with movie stars is rare — though she has met Tom Hanks and Jeff Bridges.

"I can count on one hand the number of A-listers I have met," she said. "They are busy. Emma Stone was here for months [to shoot The Curse] and I never met her."

Then again, LaBar-Tapia is busy, too. Sheriffs, cheer captains and rock stars usually are.