The Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial voted Nov. 24 to award Gold Creek Films $176,200 to produce a 56-minute documentary titled A 110 Acres and a Dream: The Making of Las Vegas, covering the city’s formative years from 1904 to 1906. Filmmaker Ted Faye presented the proposal and said the project will be produced to PBS standards, draw on archival sources including the McWilliams family papers and Union Pacific archives, and include scholars and descendants as on-camera voices.

“Project's called A 110 Acres and a Dream,” Ted Faye told commissioners, describing the film as “a story form” with “a beginning, a middle, and an end” that culminates in the 1905 land auction. He said consultants and scholars he consulted for the revision include Bob Stodahl, Michael Green and Mark Hall Patton and noted Telly Eliadez as his executive producer.

Commissioners who spoke praised the scope and historical focus. Commissioner Stodahl said the film will challenge the common assumption that the city sprang up in 1905 and called the proposed archival emphasis “historic news.” After brief questions about sources and project scope, a motion to approve the grant carried with commissioners voting in the affirmative.

The grant award was recorded as an approved action; the commission did not specify any additional conditions on the record. Faye said he is “excited to produce it” and thanked the commission for its support.

Next steps: staff will finalize the grant agreement and the commission president is authorized to execute it as approved by the city attorney.