Classy films only
Former Mormon filmmaker (still a filmmaker but no longer a Mormon) Richard Dutcher (Brigham City, God's Army) says the Utah Film Commission's denial of tax incentives to productions that contain ''inappropriate content or content that portrays Utah or Utahns in a negative way," is economic censorship.Vans Stevenson, a lobbyist with the Motion Picture Association of America, goes a step farther, saying the state's demand to read scripts before awarding financial incentives may violate filmmakers' First Amendment right.
Of 35 films or TV programs that applied for state incentives, only three failed to get approval because the contained ''excessive nudity and violence.
Films with dead cats in ice chests are presumably still OK.
6 Comments:
The incentives are granted for economic reasons, not for artistic reasons. The whole purpose of these incentives is to increase economic activity in Utah, not to promote the arts for the sake of arts. Without the economic development aspect of these films, granting these incentives would make no sense in the first place.
Granting tax incentives for films that portray Utah poorly (even if accurate)contradicts the purpose for granting these incentives.
If the State of Utah is going to be an investor (via tax payer support) of movies filmed in Utah...then it has the same right that any investor has to review the product before committing funds.
I don't recall ever hearing movie producers crying "censorshio" or "free rights violation" when the studios and moguls vet the product before investing.
The purpose of these incentives is for the Gov to have more control over Utah's economy. Get out of the incentive business. We need to stop having the business picking winners and losers, sending taxpayer money to the politically connected.
Hopefully none of my tax money is going to finance any of Dutcher's films. I'm still smarting from Brigham City.
content should not matter, the idea is get the business to come to utah,they spend money and put a lot local people to work.
Of course content matters. If someone brings a script for "Tommy Monson makes a porno" you think it would be a good idea for the state to offer incentives so it could be filmed here? Public funding/tax breaks come with accountability to "the public" for how the goods are distributed. The "1st amendment violation" argument is a hilarious crock. No one is saying they can't make their movies.
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