Yeah, That Sounds like a Fantastic Idea....

Even though few people outside of the immediate area may know about it, North Carolina has a strong film and television industry, and the center of that industry is right here in Wilmington. Movies and TV shows are constantly in production around town, there's a major (ok...maybe "major" is the wrong word...it's Screen Gems) movie studio about 2 miles from my apartment, and it's not at all uncommon to see a street downtown closed off to the public for filming. People actually come here from out of town to see the real-life locales from Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill.

Dawson's, I understand. One Tree, not so much.

However, a total shitstorm began brewing this past summer when sweet little Dakota Fanning was in town to film her latest project, Hounddog. Word managed to get out around town very early in production that Ms. Fanning's character was going to be involved in a brutal rape scene, and as could be expected, some people were kind of upset about a movie featuring a forced sexual encounter on a 12 year old girl. After the initial uproar, though, people got over it.

You see, even though NC as a whole is firmly in Red State territory, there do exist little pockets where the population doesn't conform to every Jesus-and-NASCAR stereotype lots of people picture. And while I'd say Chapel Hill/Carborro is probably the only area in the State that can rightfully be labeled "liberal," Wilmington is one of those cities that sits squarely in the moderate ground.

So basically when the Hounddog scandal first broke, you had the Bible-beaters condemning it, the artsy types celebrating it, and the vast majority of the people saying "it's just a movie...and I'm late for work!"

And we moved on.

Now Hounddog is causing a stir at Sundance, is gearing up for its theatrical release, and once again is turning some heads in the Ol' North State. Only this time around, its not here in moderate Wilmington, but in the decidedly-Jesus-and-NASCAR stronghold of Rockingham County. One of the State Senators from said county is proposing legislation that would, in essence, give the government editorial - if not outright censorship - rights over any picture filmed within our borders.

Are you kidding me?

The crux of Sen. Berger's argument is that the State's taxpayers shouldn't be forced to help fund "objectionable " movies. Granted, NC does offer lucrative tax incentives for producers to bring their projects into the state, but how on earth would you police what material is "objectionable"? I challenge Sen. Berger to pick 20 people off the street to describe their idea of "objectionable." I don't care if you're in Wilmington, Rockingham County, New York City, Tokyo or Easter Island, those 20 people are going to give 20 different answers.

There's already a clear exception in the tax breaks for obscene materials, which are defined as - come on law grads, in unison - depicting sexual conduct presented in an offensive way that appeals to prurient interest, lacks any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. While this definition is far from perfect, it does present much clearer set of boundaries than "objectionable."

Might Saving Private Ryan be objectionable to a peace activist? Could Office Space be objectionable to upper-management types? Lord of the Rings to Orcs? The bottom line is that you can name any film in the history of cinema, and someone will find it "objectionable."

Does Sen. Berger actually think writers are going tohand over their scripts for one final re-write by a bunch of good-ol-boy politicians? I can see it now....

"Yeah, you're absolutely right, Senator. Even though this project is a Ted Bundy bio-pic, lots of people find murder objectionable, so we'll have none of that in the film."

If this proposed bill actually passes (and God help us, with our politicians, it just might) then Senator Berger will get exactly what he wants - there will be no objectionable movies made in North Carolina, because there will be no movies made in North Carolina at all. The prospect of having to get some sort of legislative approval on an artistic endeavour will drive these projects out of state. End of story. The producers, directors, writers, and actors will not come and stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, drink at our bars, and have sex with our prostitutes (or whatever they do when they're here). Likewise for the tourists/stargazers that come out of nowhere when a big project starts up.

You don't think South Carolina or Virginia could come up with a decent incentive package for a big-budget film rejected (or one that doesn't even want to bother with the hassle of) the film committee of the NC Senate? I promise you, the scenery looks really similar.

People don't come here and eat at Hell's Kitchen because of the food. They eat there because it's where Pacey worked in Boston in the last seasons of Dawson's Creek. To be fair the food is actually very good there, but the big draw for everyon...er, I mean, me...is the Dawson's connection.

We've got a good thing going here. Let's not just give it away.