Picture New York (in a city without pictures)

By this point, you've probably heard the story. A few months back, in response to a judgement in a lawsuit that had been filed against it by the NYCLU, the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB) floated out a new proposal for film and still camera permit requirements that were unfriendly to artists at best, and draconian at worst. Anybody shooting handheld on the streets of New York, working with one other person known to them, would require a permit to shoot for a half an hour or more in any one location. Add a tripod into the mix (no word about monopods), and that number drops downs to ten minutes.

So who does this affect? Well, it affects no-budget filmmakers who are working on small, mobile, limited crew pictures - the kind that don't require shutting down streets or restricting traffic flow - who would now have to apply for - and wait for - a permit. No getting inspired and going out on the weekend to shoot a music video or a comedy sketch and putting it up on YouTube the next day. Now you'll have to wait and see if the city will give you a permit - which they might not, based on their whims and perhaps the color of your skin. And this is to shoot in a public space, where you're exercising your own free expression. Funny, I thought there was already a permit for that, and it was called the First Ammendment.

But it's not only filmmakers who are affected by this. It's wedding photographers. It's families taking photographs at graduation ceremonies or at little league games. It's tourists who've come all the way from Malaysia or Argentina to film the Empire State Building at sunset, and then are told that, sorry, I don't care what your life long dream has been, you're gonna have to move along.

In a city that grew famous, that grew mythic on the power of its image in iconic photographs and inspiring films, a city that enticed so any of us to move here so we too could have a piece of that dream, these laws would rob us of the very thing that we most prize - our freedom of expression and our picture of New York.

Due to the covert nature of the MOFTB's process, these proposed regulations almost slipped through the cracks. Luckily, some local filmmakers and photographers caught wind, got wise, and started getting the word out. Picture New York, ad ad-hoc group of artists and activists (of which I'm a member), has waged an aggressive campaign to let the MOFTB know that New Yorkers won't have their city taken away from them. So far, the story has been featured in print and TV media across the country, including The New York Times, The LA Times, CBS, NBC and even Keith Olberman's show, where has had some very unkind words for Julianne Cho, the representative of the MOFTB, that I don't need to repeat.

The Mayor's Office is definitely feeling the pressure, but they haven't publicly agreed to change their proposal, so we aren't done yet. If you don't want to lose your New York, please join artists such as Patti Smith, Michael Stipe and John Cameron Mitchell in signing (y)our petition. The public comment period officially ends Friday, August 3 (that's tomorrow!), so time is of the essence.

For more about what New York means to many of us (both good and bad), check out the following video, which Not An Alternative made at last week's Free Speech Rally in Union Square: