Ann Arbor Film Festival
Artist: N/A
Date of Action: March 2006-December 2007
Region: North America
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Subject: Explicit Sexuality, Political/Economic/Social Opinion
Medium: Film/Video "Film/Video" is not in the list (Commercial Advertising, Dance, Design, Installation, Journalism, Literature, Mixed Media, Music, Online, Painting, ...) of allowed values for the "Has medium" property.
Confronting Bodies: Michigan state officials
Description of Artwork: "The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America, established in 1963. Internationally recognized as a premiere forum for independent filmmakers and artists, each year's festival engages audiences with remarkable cinematic experiences. The six-day festival presents 40 programs with more than 180 films from over 20 countries of all lengths and genres, including experimental, animation, documentary, narrative, hybrid and performance based works." [1]
The Incident: The state of Michigan withdrew critical unallocated funding to the Ann Arbor Film Festival in order to protest the festival screening films that they believed to be "objectionable," including films which featured explicit sexuality and flag desecration. In 2006, the governor of Michigan "expanded the MCACA [Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs] restrictions requiring the MCACA to withhold undistributed grant payments from those who violate the restrictions," which effectively denied funding from the MCACA to the film festival.
Results of Incident: After a lawsuit brought against the state from the Michigan chapter of the ACLU on the festival's behalf, both parties announced a settlement where the state agreed to repeal unconstitutional restrictions on arts funding, and the ACLU agreed to withdraw the lawsuit.
Source:
• http://www.aclumich.org/issues/free-speech/2007-12/1240