NATPE 2009 - Exhibition Floor Opens - Las Vegas

3 1/2 years after Peggy called me to document a California Coastal Commission inspection; SINS OF COMMISSION debuted at the 2009 NATPE CONVENTION (National Association of Television Program Executives), in LAS VEGAS.

Even though SINS OF COMMISSION is not finished, we had no choice but to present it to the global film and television distribution community. 

Time is running out for California.

NATPE 2009 Opening coincides with Chinese New Year

One question each distributor inevitably asks is why a film dealing with a local “California” issue has global importance. It’s a darn good question. Here’s my response -

ERIN BROKAVITCH was a film about a powerful utility company called P G & E (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) and took place in the sleepy southern California town of Hinkley. Who ever heard of Hinkley?

SILKWOOD was about a local small and previously unknown company, Kerr-McGee. The story took place in a Kerr-McGee plant near Crescent, Oklahoma. Does anyone know where Crescent is? 

Everyone knows where the California is.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas….but what happens in California effects the world.

-Richard Oshen, Writer, Director, Producer

NATPE 2009 IDA Booth

The events revealed in ERIN BROKAVITCH and SILKWOOD entered our national debate and shaped policy.

Although the corruption each film exposed occurred in a local context… it occurs in every state in our nation and universally.

Each film’s specific event is a template anyone living anywhere in the world can identify with.

Same with SINS OF COMMISSION.

Corruption is universally understood.

California Wild Fires from Space

The dialog SINS OF COMMISSION ignites, will shape California state environmental policy and will also have a profound effect domestically and internationally for several reasons:

1) quasijudicial regulatory agencies operate in every state in our country and occur internationally 

2) land use is an incredibly hot topic,  and

3) the entire world is effected by the CO2 California emits each year from catastrophic wildfires 

NATPE 2009 - IDA Booth

SINS OF COMMISSION urgently needs your support to complete the film.

SINS OF COMMISSION is a fiscally sponsored film through the IDA - the International Documentary  Association a 501 c3 Non Profit organization.

All contributions made thru the IDA are tax deductible.

Times are tough for all of us,  but so are we…and they won’t get better unless we pull together.

Separation of Powers is vital to individual liberty

The principal of Separation of Powers, vital to the protection of individual liberty, is ignored by the California Coastal Commission. Without it, some people might be tempted to let one individual or group take too much power in the name of pursuing some popular cause.

Right now, right here in California, USA, “the California Coastal Commission is the poster child for government power run amok — but because everything the commission does is supposedly to protect the environment, hardly anybody questions it. Especially the news media.” ¹ 

Do we, the people really want a state agency that claims jurisdiction over telling a homeowner what color to paint their house under the guise of environmental protection?  AND if we do, perhaps its time to re-prioritize PDQ, given our massive budget problems.

The California Coastal Commission’s purpose is so important… to protect the coast from serious threats such as oil spills, sea walls strip mall development it has been able to claim popular immunity for all sorts of sins of commission done in the name of protecting the environment.

SINS OF COMMISSION pierces the fog of secrecy surrounding the imperial California Coastal Commission and replaces cloudy vision with the crystal clear reality that for 30 plus years homeowners, farmers, and landowners have been told what to do by a government agency that was designed to protect our precious coastal resources of California from major offenders, and not John and Jane Doe Homeowner.

The chairman runs the meetings, has influence over the agenda and serves as the commission’s public face.  The commission, the state’s most powerful land-use regulator…is an independent panel – much to the irritation of a number of governors, including the current one – and it has an aggressive staff. Those two qualities often put them at odds with the powers in Sacramento the people who are affected by its decisions first hand.

(Source: John Howard, CAPITOL WEEKLY)

Bonnie Neely recently became the California California Coastal Commission’s new chairperson, and I for one sincerely hope she can get the California Coastal Commission back on the track it derailed from and refocus the commission’s attention to the big issues facing California’s 1,100 mile coastline.

Feeling burnt?

Donate now through the International Documentary Association, our fiscal sponsor.

¹http://www.cpoabigsur.org/Archive/CCC_Articles/Reinventing_The_Coastal_Commission.html