Basing need for a permit on whether a filmmaker/photographer actually creates an obstruction is vastly preferable to previous criteria and I commend you for moving in that direction. However, I am seriously concerned that some of the new language is unduly complicated and ambiguous, and that this will lead to problems on the street. For that reason, I consider the regulations to be currently unacceptable. (more…)

National Press Photographers Association, Inc.
The Society of Professional Photojournalists
Statement delivered to the Mayor’s Office of Film hearing
December 13, 2007

Good morning my name is Mickey Osterreicher. I am General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association an organization consisting of 10,000 members that was originally founded in 1946 and is dedicated to the (more…)

To everyone in this room who has a video camera, a still camera, or a cell-phone camera: If a police officer stops you and says, “You can’t take a picture here” or “Put away the camera and move on,” please get the officer’s name and shield number, and call 311. Direct your call to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and register your complaint. You have the constitutional right to carry a camera and use it. (more…)

TESTIMONY OF CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER CHRISTINE C. QUINN
Film Permitting Rules
Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting
December 13, 2007 (more…)

A public hearing will be held on Thursday December 13, 2007, at 10:00 AM
at the offices of the Economic Development Corporation,
110 William Street, 4th floor (between Fulton and John Streets)

MOFTB prefers you notify them by December 8th if you want to testify,
although it is not required.

Written comment regarding this proposed amendment may be sent to
Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB)
Communications Department,
1697 Broadway, New York NY 10019,
on or before December 13, 2007.

Comments may be submitted by email to message@film.nyc.gov
on or before December 13, 2007.

“The kind of films we make simply could not be made if we had to go through
a NYC bureaucracy to get a permit every time we picked up our cameras. It’s
intrusive, stifling and goes against our first amendment rights - not to
mention it would probably put us out of business”
(more…)

(who is also a filmmaker)

http://blogs.indiewire.com/jamesisrael
(more…)

August 2, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) joins Picture New York in objecting to the proposed regulations. Tony Overman, president of the NPPA states “we are offended at the notion that a city agency or police officer would have the power to keep a photographer from taking a picture or video on a public street. This permit rule change creates that very real possibility. City property belongs to the citizens and the city has no right to limit safe, constitutionally protected behavior in a public venue.”

NPPA Voices Opposition To NYC Film Permit Rule Changes

The restriction of spontaneity is the enemy of creativity; even if it may be financially possible for artists with smaller budgets to obtain insurance waivers and continue to film and photograph the streets of New York, it would be a great loss for a lens of red tape and permissions to become the only one through which such a vital city may be captured.
(excerpt, complete text after the jump) (more…)

We’ve set up an online e-action form to make it as easy as possible. Just click here to submit comments to the Mayor’s Office of Film and to the City Council Committee that oversees that office. There’s a sample letter there, and you can add your own comments, then hit send. Voila!

You can read the comments of other artists and organizations by scrolling down the Public Comments page.

“This must not happen in our city. Filmmakers and photographers witness the “moment of now.” We are present-day historians. our tools must not be taken away and our rights must not be vanquished. The world needs to see who we are. and future generations need to see what we have seen and what we have been. If this absurd regulation passes, where will the artists go? They will be forced to leave the city. And then I ask, what will become of the city?”

As the largest arts service organization in New York City, Fractured Atlas represents over 2,000 filmmakers and photographers in the five boroughs. Since the proposed rule changes were announced, we have witnessed more acute distress amongst our membership than on any other public policy issue in our nine-year history.
(excerpt, complete text after the jump) (more…)

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. (more…)

I am American/New York born of Iranian descent…not to minimize the curtailing of personal freedoms there but even in Iran I’ve brought my video camera several times over the last 15 years and have only been asked to stop by the committee (their street police) one time. I can’t believe how New York has changed over the years.
The New York I love, the one I was born and raised in, is fast disappearing.
(excerpt, complete letter after the jump)
(more…)

If the pending regulations by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting were in effect five years ago I would not have been able to afford to make the film and the millions of viewers who saw it in theatres and on PBS would not have had access to the important New York stories it incorporates. New York City has always been a creative haven . . . (excerpt, complete text after the jump)
(more…)

I’m a New York City-based filmmaker (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus) and I just want to register my concern about the new public photographic rules you are considering. As vaguely as they are written now they threaten the very special relationship that amateur/fine arts photographers and filmmakers have with this city. I urge you to be more specific and realistic in creating generous rules that encourage artists and chroniclers to be more creative, not less.

I have been a NY based photographer for 40 years and have cannot for the life of me see what the City would potentially kill the vehicle which enamors the public with NYC. Namely the film and still images which excite those who view them.

I have worked for 100’s of companies over the years within NYC. I was the Official Photographer for the Yankees and have worked with 5 Presidents, the Pope and the Dalai Llama. (more…)

I’m a filmmaker, best known as the director of Paris is Burning, a film
that’s distributed by Miramax/Disney, that won a Sundance Grand Jury
Prize, and that is, according to industry sources, once of the most-seen
documentaries EVER. I say this to impress on you that I began making
this film when I was 22, new to New York City. The film took seven years
to make and it began with my taking still photographs, and with film
footage created on the fly, with zero budget. I didn’t go film school at all,
I learned in the film school of New York City.

(more…)

This is an awful idea.

It would have made an entire formerly underground, now very much overground,
history of the city by everyone from Helen Levitt (her “In the Street” is now a national treasure in the Library of Congress), Robert Frank and Bruce Davidson to Jim Jarmusch and Jonas Mekas simply impossible.

It also will drive away new young indie filmmakers like Aaron
Katz (his “Quiet City” is so beautiful, makes you love New York all over
again) and Andrew Bujalski and of course, Jem Cohen.
Why should they shoot here when they can work in Austin or Boston with
no problems and cheaper rent.

(more…)

I’m a multi-award winning indie filmmaker often dealing with the visual arts who’s shown at MoMA with my no budget experimental films on Picasso/ Pollock & others. I signed this protest as it will be a fantastic encroachment not only on my own one camera ongoing personal videoing & archivist activities as a NYC artist & indie filmmaker — but can also see that it will greatly affect all our liberties. (more…)

As a filmmaker and as an educator I find this proposed law onerous for
young directors. When I taught at NYU it was always our aim to make
the medium accessible to the largest number of people. We initiated
projects in which we distributed cameras to senior citizen centers;
youth centers etc to encourage people to make films about their own
concerns. Finally we get to the point where the medium is accessible
to all and the city wants to curtail the right of young people to tape
on the streets of new york. Sure they can be troublesome but do you
know how much a million dollars worth of insurance costs - about
$3000/year! Encourage not discourage!

As a filmmaker whose focus is poetic super 8 city films this would have devastating effects on my art. In fact, I recently shot several reels of historic and older neighborhoods in Hell’s Kitchen and the Fashion District. Filmmaking as an art can document and poetically interpret the feeling, mood, and history of the city. Film can capture people, buildings, movement, shapes, color, and the passage of time. We would not have many beautiful and thought-provoking works of art if filmmakers could not film with freedom. Many filmmakers work independently or with just a couple people. There isn’t a need to get a separate permit to creat art - that violates freedom of speech. Please throw those regulations out and schedule another public hearing.

Another serious ramification of these proposed rules changes is to the
very idea of culture itself. If the state becomes the determinator of who
can utilize city streets to make images, how will this effect our
collective cultural image bank? Would Robert Frank have been able to take
the photographs that led to his searingly influential book “The Americans”
if he had to apply for a permit every time he went out to make images of
urban life and urban experiences?

(more…)