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United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) chats with DGA First Vice President Paris Barclay and DGA Fifth Vice President Betty Thomas. (right) - photos by Robert Hale - click images for larger views
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Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is the Senate Democratic Whip, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate. He was welcomed to the Guild by DGA First Vice President Paris Barclay, who added that Durbin also sits on the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over several issues that are critical to the DGA. "For the past 5 years, we've been talking to Senators and Congressmen and, in some cases, local officials, about the things that matter to us and this is another opportunity to do that," Barclay said. "So we're very honored to have you here."
Barclay, who also serves as Co-Chair of the PAC Leadership Council, further noted that Durbin has been very supportive of the Guild's efforts to enact federal tax legislation to promote film and television production in the United States "We want to thank for you being one of the five Senate sponsors of our runaway production legislation," he said.
Durbin said he continues to oppose the use of foreign locales for U.S. locations and landmarks. He cited as a particularly offensive example of runaway production the fact that key scenes of the recent docudrama, The Path To 9/11, were actually filmed in Toronto - including scenes of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
"Runaway production is a critical issue for your industry and our country," Durbin said. He added that his home state of Illinois was among the first states to fight back against runaway production when it enacted a 20% tax credit on total production spending within the state in 2003. "We need to do more ? not just in the states, but also at the federal level ? to keep film production in the US," Durbin said.
Asked about the difficulty of creating federal incentives to combat runaway production, Durbin said, "I don't run into open opposition, but there is a cost to every tax incentive." The key to building support in Washington, he said, is demonstrating how the film industry benefits America. "This is a cause worth fighting for," Durbin said. "Your industry is hugely important to our economy and to our balance of trade. It's a major source of revenue and American jobs and we're crazy to let it move away."
Durbin also stressed the need to prevent further piracy of audio-visual works: "I know this means a lot to you because this is your life's work. You have a right to have that work protected, yet there are continuing efforts by people all over the world to steal it. We need strict policing standards, we need to include those standards in our international agreements, and we need to aggressively enforce those agreements."
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L-R Bottom Row: Director Wolfgang Glattes, DGA Board Member Jeremy Kagan, DGA First Vice President /PAC LC Co-Chair Paris Barclay, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), DGA Board Member John Rich, Directors Demian Lichtenstein and Hart Bochner. L-R Top Row: DGA Board Alternate Randal Kleiser, Directors Robert Markowitz and Allen Coulter, DGA Board Alternate Robert Butler, DGA Fifth Vice President Betty Thomas, Directors Andy Cadiff and Leonard Garner, and DGA Board Alternate Donald Petrie.
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Durbin said he was also troubled by a provision included in the recently enacted Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. This provision, known in shorthand as the "Pence Amendment," requires the industry to keep strict records on the name and age of any actor engaging in simulated sex scenes on film, television and other media.
"We all want to protect children from sexual predators and we all agree that parents need all the tools they can get to protect their children," Durbin said. "Those are the goals of the Adam Walsh bill. But mandating unreasonable record-keeping requirements for mainstream entertainment, as the Pence amendment does, doesn't achieve those goals, it just increases the bureaucracy. We need to make the world safer for children, not simply make the government more powerful and intrusive."
Durbin concluded by saying that DGA members are in a unique position to help bolster America's image abroad. "If we are ever going to get out of this hole, we need the American film industry to tell America's story honestly," he said. "Far more people are moved by good films than by my speeches. What you do makes a huge difference."
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