Career Paths

Daniel Califf-Glick is a local film director who moved to New Mexico this year from Queens, New York to document the true life story of Jimmy Santiago Baca, a world-renowned poet. He has BA in political science from Rutgers University.

Daily Lobo: How did you get into film, seeing as you got a degree in something completely different?

Daniel Califf-Glick: I’ve been out of school since 2005, when I got my bachelor’s in political science. I didn’t really want to do anything with it; I just enjoyed the classes. But my senior year, I got a camera for my birthday, and just started making silly stuff with friends with this tiny little camera.

These movies just kept getting longer and longer, and by the end of that year we made an hour-long movie, which was terrible, but that planted the seed that, ‘Wow, maybe I could do something like that.’ When I graduated, film was the only thing I knew I wanted to do, or wanted to try.

DL: What was your first film?

DCG: It took like three or four years, but I made a feature-length mockumentary about William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the U.S. … the film is that he faked his death in office instead of dying after 30 days, and it followed a journalist as she worked to uncover the truth. I think it’s funny, but objectively, I’m not sure other people do.

DL: How did you learn to make films without any formal education?

DCG: I worked on a documentary on renewable energy and a video game web series. So I was working on these things just for the hell of it, working at a bakery to get money and then working at a local access TV station. Those projects were really film school for me. They’re good, but they’re not really good. It was a trial through error, and a success through failure.

DL: In 30 seconds, tell us what your current film, “A Place to Stand,” is about.

DCG: It’s the story of how Jimmy Santiago Baca, a world famous award-winning poet, was abandoned and became an orphan, went through homelessness and abuse, and went to prison, and how poetry and writing saved his life when he was in one of the worst prisons in the country.

DL: How did you decide to film this?

DCG: Around two years ago, I read Jimmy Santiago Baca’s book, “A Place to Stand.” It blew me away — it knocked me on the floor, and instantly I was like, ‘I’ve got to write this guy.’ It changed the way I saw the world. I looked him up online and said, “Hey, thank you for writing this book, let me know if you want to make a movie.” And he emailed me back and said, “Oh ok, who the hell are you?”

So we emailed back and forth, and eventually he agreed. I was planning to raise money and then come out here, but it eventually became clear I just needed to move out here, so I drove from New York to New Mexico.

DL: How do you film a project with so little funding?

DCG: The way we’ve been doing, it’s been a passion project, and it’s low-budget. A lot of how I found people to hire is through friends or connections. I’m no expert, but it seems like, in the film world, networking is what gets you jobs. You will be working on a project and somebody will say, “Oh, this guy is good, you should talk to him.” Most of our hours are volunteer. It’s never an open call, it’s who you know, or who people can vouch for.

We are trying to shoot a lot on scene, but that is hard, although we have a lot from where things actually took place.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get into Jimmy’s prison, but we filmed at the Santa Fe prison, the old one where the riot happened … which is run by the New Mexico Film Office. To shoot on scene you just have to be really gracious and explain that you are working on a passion project. Just really no shame, you just have to hustle.

We’ve spent about $25,000 so far, and that doesn’t include donated hours, but I think the total budget will probably be $150,000-$175,000.

DL: What type of documentary is this? Is it like the William Henry Harrison film?

DCG: We will have stylistic reenactments, but it’s not going to be anything with dialogue, it will hopefully be very visually poetic. It’s a collection of clips and interviews of people in Jimmy’s life, mostly him, and in that there will be visuals and pictures and, interspersed, Jimmy’s poems.

We’ve talked to a lot of people who knew Jimmy. We are trying to make a true documentary this time. We have nine days of interviews. He is narrating it through interviews and we will find a narrator to bridge any gaps. … We’ve been working with about 30 other people who were inmates with him or wrote him letters. We’re about 80 percent of the way done.

DL: Where are you hoping to show the film?

DCG: Everywhere that we can. Promotion, the entire process, is about hustling: you just have to be willing to go out there and put out the hours and be shameless about your project.

In Albuquerque alone there are probably 200 projects trying to get recognized. First off, you just have to make a really good film. Before you worry about how to promote, make something good.

Check out APlaceToStandMovie.com for a trailer and more information. Califf-Glick is currently looking for volunteers and interns to help complete his film.