The recent announcement that the Mayor’s Office of Film and Television will require nearly all filmmakers to have a permit and a $1 million liability insurance package took me by surprise both as a filmmaker and as someone who values and promotes the freedom of expression.

I am the Executive Director of the New York-based Arts Engine, one of the premiere organizations for independent media with over 16,000 members. Our members are mostly independent documentary filmmakers.

As you well know, New York has one of the most vibrant film cultures in the world, enabling groups like ours and our membership to engage in creative expression and contribute to the public dialogue in a variety of filmmaking capacities.

These new regulations would dramatically change that. Filmmakers lacking the proper credentials for a permit or the financial wherewithal for the liability insurance would be out of luck. Their work, no less valuable than the work of seasoned and financially-backed filmmakers, would never be created.

But it’s not only that fewer filmmakers will be able to produce films here. The First Amendment is also at stake. Because the regulations will be required for any “group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than half an hour” or “any group of five or more people who plan to use a tripod in a public location for more than ten minutes, including the time it takes to set up the equipment,” they will effectively infringe on both freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

As a lifetime resident of this great city and as someone whose professional life is intimately linked to its culture of filmmaking, I am writing to you now to oppose these regulations.

Sincerely,

Katy Chevigny
Executive Director