In this time of crippling deficits, what could be more obscene than the government funding art unable to sustain itself in the free market? What am I saying; even in times of a budget surplus this is obscene.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced $40 million in grants, including $3.2 million for scholars, museums and documentary filmmakers in California.

Like its sister agency, the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEH saw its current-year budget slashed 7.5% in April, down to $155 million, and its future prospects are iffy given the deficit-cutting mood in Washington. For now, there’s still money to go around.

L.A.’s Grammy Museum will get $550,000 to help produce “Rockin’ the Kremlin,” a film by director Jim Brown about the role American rock music played in weakening the Soviet empire.  A UPI.com report last year on plans for the film said it includes an account of a 1977 Soviet tour by the Southern California-based Nitty Gritty Dirt Band that was said to play a part in capturing young Slavic imaginations, presumably helping to awaken them to the drawbacks of totalitarian rule. Brown’s past films include documentaries about Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Peter Paul and Mary and a PBS series, “American Roots Music.”

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As you all know, I am a producer of feature films, well mostly TV movies.  Thus far, most of my films have shot overseas in order to keep costs down.  A number of them could have and would have been shot in America had there been any kind of tax incentives to level the playing field with the cheaper labor rates found in Thailand, India and Eastern Europe. 

In the past few years, many states have enacted such tax incentives.  The three most lucrative and most popular are currently Michigan, Louisiana and Georgia.  I have already written about the Michigan tax incentives in the past.  One such article about Michigan is “SAG and the Independent.”   These tax incentives are keeping billions of dollars and hundreds of jobs in the United States at a time when they are needed most.  As of this morning, the unemployment rate is 9.0% and the “Real” unemployment rate is approximately 16%. 

Recently, California has enacted a Tax Incentive Statute, to help keep its lucrative entertainment industry alive.  The California Statute provides a refund of up to 25% of Qualified Production Costs for Films that have 75% of their production days and/or 75% of their total budget spent in California.  The total amount allocated for this credit is one hundred million dollars per year.  However, the total amount has a lifetime cap and such cap is quickly approaching.

 Effectively, this California money will run out in about 18 months.  What this will do is remove all production from the state of California except for some TV, and a few feature films in which the stars have enough clout to keep the film in California.  As it is now, production in California is down even with the credit because, other than NY, it is the most expensive state to shoot in.  Without the credit, the industry will effectively leave the state.  Once it’s gone, it will be very difficult to ever get it back. 

Who will be hurt the most by this?  Will it be the major studios or independent producers?  No.  Studios will shoot films wherever they can make them cheaper.  Producers will do the same.  It may be inconvenient or uncomfortable for producers like me to live in a foreign country or in a hotel for a few months, but such is the cost of business. 

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Finally, a little justice. Some of you might recall that the prospect of director Robert Rodriguez receiving taxpayer dollars after bringing one the most anti-American and outright racist films in years to the bigscreen was more than a little upsetting to those of us who pay taxes, aren’t racist, and kinda dig America.

Good news today via the “Wall Street Journal“:

The Texas Film Commission says it will refuse to pay $1.75 million in state incentives to the movie’s producers citing a state law that allows the state to refuse to pay incentives for “content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.”

But what exactly is the “negative” portrayal the governor’s staff object to? Most commentators assume it is Sen. McLaughlin’s character, a virulently anti-immigration politician whose faux ad supports an “electrified border fence” and pledges “no amnesty for parasites.”

Or is it the fact that at the end of the movie, the main character – an ex-Mexican federal police officer played by Danny Trejo – gets legal status? This is after he leads a group of Mexican immigrants in a confrontation with border vigilantes.

Calls to the Texas Film Commission were forwarded to Gov. Perry’s press office. Katherine Cesinger, the governor’s spokeswoman, said the letter to the filmmakers didn’t specify why the movie ran afoul of the “negative” portrayal criteria. “The totality of the project is what the office takes a look at,” she said.

Here’s our favorite part of the story, where after crashing and burning, Rodriguez gets to stand up, brush himself off, and say: “I meant to do that.” (more…)

The National Endowment for the Arts might be the strongest proof yet that Leftists are much more invested in the culture war than say, oh, feeding the hungry. You would think anyone truly concerned with the downtrodden would be outraged over the very idea of the NEA: “People living in the streets and we’re spending tax dollars on Perverts Put Out?!?”

If there’s any program Republicans like myself would be willing to immediately de-fund, dismantle, and move its resources over to Head Start and “green initiatives” (is porn more important than Mother Earth?), it’s the NEA. For the asking, millions upon millions of dollars in federal relief could be transferred to hunger programs, breast cancer research and third-world vaccinations. But no, obviously the screening of skin-flicks featuring Gorillas takes precedent: (more…)