Memorial Day and Beyond

I was driving through Kennebunkport on Memorial Day as the parade was about to begin. It was great to see the spectators finding their spots on the side of the road as the veterans in their uniforms, the band members with their musical instruments, the boy scouts with their yellow bandanas around their necks and the young baton twirlers in their blue velvet dresses excitedly got ready for the parade.

It made me feel good to see everyone come together to celebrate and recognize those who fought and died for our country.

Regardless of political leanings everyone can come together for this purpose.

As we move forward with LD 1449 (HP 1005) "An Act To Expand Tax Incentives for Visual Media Productions" the same type of collective response is occurring.

The media industry, with encouragement from the Maine Film and Video Association and Portland Media Artists, now has a common goal that everyone can come together and support.

The legislature continues the furtherance of LD 1449 as it passed through the taxation committee with unanimous support back on May 16th.

And local chambers of commerce and municipalities continue to express interest and backing for LD 1449.

Barney Martin and I went on a road trip on May 11th to do a presentation at the Alamo Theatre in Bucksport hosted by the Bucksport Chamber of Commerce. Dick Kane, President of the MFVA was in the audience and available for questions. He also brought along some helpful handouts that were originally prepared by the Film Office staff. If you’d like to read about the presentation please click on the link below:

Lights! Camera! Tax breaks!
By Steve Fuller
The Republican Journal Reporter

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Government/story.cfm?storyID=159426

On May 13th I received an email from Tom Porter of MPBN saying that he had just interviewed Ben Kahn and Michael Panenka about their short film "A Brief Case of Love:", which they took to Cannes during the week of May 17th. You can access the interview, in which they talk about the importance of promoting Maine on their trip at:

http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNews/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/1858/ItemId/10512/Default.aspx
And on May 9th I had the pleasure of attending the premier episode of the new monthly television show “Behind The Artist,” at the Marriott Sable Oaks in South Portland. The show is produced by Scott Jordan and 207 Entertainment www.207ent.net and will air every Saturday at 10:30pm on WPME Time Warner Channel 17.

My fellow film advocate and friend Barney Martin was the subject of the first episode and I hope there are many more episodes to follow.

There are many great Maine independent media projects occurring in our wonderful state. We need to continue to support and promote them as we work to increase tax incentives that will also allow major feature film and visual media projects to be shot in Maine

As we move past Memorial Day into the summer of 2009 I have great hope that LD 1449 will pass and we will all be able to celebrate legislation that will have a positive impact on every citizen, business and municipality in Maine.